From Startup to $32B : How Wiz Became Google’s Cybersecurity Power Play

The cybersecurity industry is experiencing exponential growth, driven by the increasing digitalization of businesses and the rise of sophisticated cyber threats. To stay at the forefront of innovation and strengthen its position in this highly competitive sector, Google recently announced the acquisition of Wiz, a startup specializing in cloud security. This strategic acquisition is part of a broader trend where major tech companies integrate advanced cybersecurity solutions to meet the growing needs of businesses operating in the cloud. In this article, we will explore the various facets of this acquisition by analyzing Google’s acquisition strategy, Wiz’s historical trajectory, and the strategic implications of this transaction for both companies.

Wiz : A VC Success Story

Wiz was founded in early 2020 by Assaf Rappaport, Ami Luttwak, Yinon Costica, and Roy Reznik, a team of former Microsoft cloud security executives who saw an opportunity to revolutionize cloud security. Their vision was clear: build a platform that helps companies detect and prioritize security risks across their cloud environments without slowing down operations. This innovative approach quickly caught the attention of major enterprises looking to secure their infrastructure more effectively.

By December 2020, just months after its launch, Wiz secured $100 million in Series A funding, a remarkable achievement that propelled the company into the spotlight. This momentum continued in 2021 with an additional $130 million raised in Series B, followed by a Series C round in 2022 that brought its valuation to over $6 billion. During this period, Wiz expanded its client base, attracting Fortune 500 companies and solidifying its reputation as a trusted leader in cloud security.

In 2023, as cyber threats grew more sophisticated, Wiz responded by enhancing its platform to provide more advanced risk management and threat detection capabilities. Its innovative approach to cloud security, combined with a growing client portfolio, positioned Wiz as an industry leader. The company experienced massive revenue growth, setting new benchmarks in the cybersecurity industry. Wiz not only doubled its revenue year-over-year but also became one of the fastest-growing VC-backed startups in history, surpassing growth rates previously seen in the tech sector.

By early 2024, the company had firmly established itself as a top player in the cybersecurity space, making it an attractive acquisition target. Google had already recognized Wiz’s immense potential and, in early 2024, offered $23 billion to acquire the company. However, Wiz’s leadership believed in the company’s continued growth trajectory and turned down the offer, convinced that their valuation would rise even higher as they continued scaling at an unprecedented pace. Their confidence was well-placed over the following months, Wiz’s revenue and customer base continued to grow exponentially, solidifying its dominance in the industry.

In March 2025, Google returned with an even stronger offer of $32 billion, which Wiz accepted. This historic deal became the largest cybersecurity acquisition ever, surpassing Cisco’s $28 billion purchase of Splunk in 2022. The acquisition strengthens Google Cloud’s security capabilities, reinforcing its position against AWS and Microsoft Azure while providing clients with cutting-edge cloud protection.

The Record Breaking Transaction

Google recently announced the acquisition of Wiz, a company specializing in cloud security, for an estimated $32 billion. This transaction, announced in March 2025, marks one of the largest acquisitions in the tech sector in recent years.

Google’s acquisition of Wiz aligns with its broader strategy to strengthen Google Cloud’s security capabilities. By integrating Wiz’s advanced technologies, Google aims to provide its clients with more robust cybersecurity solutions, addressing the growing need for data protection in increasingly complex cloud environments. This acquisition will also allow Google to compete more effectively with Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web Services (AWS), both of which are investing heavily in securing their cloud infrastructures. Wiz’s platform will be seamlessly integrated into the Google Cloud ecosystem, simplifying cybersecurity management for enterprise customers while expanding the range of security services offered by Google.

From a financial perspective, the transaction was primarily structured as a cash deal, with part of the acquisition funded by Alphabet’s substantial cash reserves. The deal is expected to be finalized in the second half of 2025, pending regulatory approvals. The integration of Wiz within Google is anticipated to generate significant synergies, particularly due to the complementarity of the technologies and expertise of both companies. Additionally, Google plans to invest heavily in enhancing Wiz’s capabilities to expand its offerings in risk management and compliance for large enterprises. This strategic acquisition highlights Google’s commitment to securing its position in the cloud industry while addressing the growing challenges posed by cyber threats.

Google’s M&A Strategy

Since Google’s founding in 1998, Google has completed over 200 company acquisitions totaling approximately 215 B$ of transaction value. The M&A playbook has been a key pillar in the company’s growth in establishing itself as a leader across many different industries. Let’s take a step-back to understand how we arrived at today’s record-breaking acquisition of Wiz. When Google acquires a company, it usually follows one of 2 primary theses. 1) Acquiring a large part of an established industry to set itself as a leader or 2) investing ahead of a growing industry to speculate on future potential growth. In this case, Google is establishing itself as a leader in cloud cybersecurity through both the major acquisitions of Mandiant (5.4B$, 2023) and Wiz. Even though the cybersecurity industry has been around since the revolutionary John McAfee in the 90s, it is undergoing heavy transformations in this latest era of integrated clouds and ecosystems. Companies are relying much more on data and AI for the daily operations and Google sees a clear fit with its extensive infrastructural reach to become a market leader in cybersecurity, ahead of its peers Amazon and Microsoft.

Looking at the trend in past acquisitions, it is unsurprising to see today’s bold move. Google’s acquisition strategy has evolved in the last 20 years in 4 phases. 1) The foundation phase (2001 – 2006). The beginning of the internet - These are the early days in which Google was still developing its core search engine and advertising capabilities, leapfrogging competitors such as Yahoo. Notable acquisitions include Applied Semantics (102M$, 2003), a word and language analyzer, and (Keyhole, 35M$ 2004), a satellite imaging company (foreshadowing Google Earth). Next it was the expansion phase (2006 to 2013).  Google started leveraging its leading position in search engines to expand across platforms, including Youtube (1.65B$, 2007). Then the cash pile started building up, Google entered its diversification phase from 2014 to 2019. Google became more of an investment company with a certain budget per year than a core operating business. They had the luxury of speculating on growing businesses or immediately becoming a market leader through a series of acquisitions. During this phase, we saw a great shift in the size and frequency of transactions. In the earlier days Google was on an acquisition spree with 31 acquisitions in 2014. With the objective of having a smoother integration into the Google ecosystem, the team focused their efforts on fewer but larger acquisitions, in line with the record 32B$ of Wiz. Then during the pandemic Google entered its Enterprise Cloud Phase, in which it looks to pivot away from consumers to focus on businesses, building fully integrated data infrastructures, Clouds and leveraging its AI capabilities. This includes the major step into cybersecurity with Wiz, capable of working across entire infrastructures.

In conclusion, we can clearly see how Google’s M&A strategy has lead them to acquiring Wiz, one of the most successful startups of all time at an extremely high price tag. Although it may seem like an overpriced valuation at first, it goes to show the size of synergies Google can expect Wiz to gain from a completely integrated eco-system, providing it with an even stronger moat. The top competitor CrowdStrike has yet to give a clear answer on how it will now answer its rival’s new position other than showcase their stronger security system, but it will be more interesting to see how other cloud providers such as Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web Services will answer to Google new cybersecurity strength.

L'Équipe Investment Banking