Safeguarding private information in the cloud is a critical part of the modern computing experience.
With more data being stored on cloud-based platforms, it’s more important than ever to use strict security measures to protect data from breaches, cyberattacks, and unauthorized access.
Threats like viruses, malware, and cyber-attacks can compromise the availability, integrity, and confidentiality of data stored in the cloud.
Wiz, a cloud security platform based in New York, is designed to help in this situation. The US company is now taking the other path, which involves scanning cloud workloads with a method that is API-based and doesn’t use agents.
Raised $300M
A new funding round, led by Lightspeed Venture Partners and totaling $300 million, was recently closed by Wiz (Menlo Park-based VC firm that also backed tech giants like Snapchat and, most recently, Remedial Health). Greenoaks Capital Partners and Index Ventures, two investors who had already put money in the company, joined the round.
Wiz is now the largest cybersecurity unicorn and the fastest SaaS company to reach a $10 billion valuation, thanks to a recent funding round.
Assaf Rappaport, co-founder, and CEO of Wiz, said: “We are extremely proud of our growth rate in terms of the number of customers, sales, and valuation, especially in view of the current market conditions for global high-tech. Wiz’s meteoric rise shows that companies choose our platform because it helps security and development teams efficiently find vulnerabilities and prevents breaches, even though there are many cybersecurity options available. Wiz also brings together on a single platform a wide range of tools that were previously used separately for things like assessing vulnerabilities, analyzing data security, and auditing permissions. The money from this round of financing will be used to grow our international business, bring in new customers in a wide range of markets, and strengthen our commitment to new ideas.
What exactly are the plans for the money, then?
In addition to its current 650 US and international employees, the company intends to expand by opening new offices in Austin, Dallas, and Washington, DC. The money will also help with global growth in regions like Europe, the Middle East, and Asia.
Sequoia Capital, Insight Partners, Blackstone, and G Squared are among the investors who have contributed to the company’s $900 million funding round.
Private investors and successful businesspeople like the world’s richest man, Bernard Arnault, and Starbucks’s Howard Schultz are also behind the company.
Creating havoc in cloud security
Wiz, created by Assaf Rappaport, Ami Luttwak, Yinon Costica, and Roy Reznik, performs a full scan of the cloud in order to reveal any hidden vulnerabilities, and then uses the context provided by its Security Graph to filter out the irrelevant threats and highlight the ones that really matter.
This allows them to quickly locate threats in their cloud, rank them, and eliminate them.
Modules for Container and Kubernetes security, Data Security Posture Management (DSPM), and Cloud Detection and Response were added to the company’s cloud security platform (CSPM & CNAPP) in 2022. (CDR).
As a result, businesses can streamline their cloud-based security initiatives onto a single system.
Partner at Lightspeed Ventures Arsham Memarzadeh said, “The continued adoption of the cloud opens up the next platform opportunity in cyber. Wiz has established itself as the industry standard in cloud security, earning the kind of acclaim more commonly associated with the best consumer app than a cyber company. We at Lightspeed are overjoyed to share the lead in this round.
“Wiz is rapidly becoming the center of the cloud security ecosystem,” said Greenoaks Partner Patrick Backhouse. Just two years ago, the cloud environment had to be kept safe with a mix of point solutions and add-ons. Wiz has made a cloud-native platform that is state-of-the-art and gives customers immediate, actionable information about their weaknesses, threats, and possible solutions. The partnership with Assaf and his team is exciting because “we rarely see a business gain traction or garner customer love so quickly.”
