Google this week closed its $32 billion acquisition of cybersecurity firm Wiz — the largest acquisition in Google history, as well as the largest acquisition of a venture-backed startup.
On the latest episode of TechCrunch’s Equity podcast, Rebecca Bellan, Sean O’Kane and I were joined by Shardul Shah, a partner at Wiz’s largest shareholder Index Ventures. Shah walked us through his history with Wiz, which stretches back before Wiz itself—he previously backed Adallom, the startup previously founded by Wiz’s Assaf Rappaport, Ami Luttwak, and Roy Reznik.
We also asked Shah about why he thinks the company was such an attractive takeover target and how he responded when Wiz backed out of Google’s previous takeover bid.
“It’s no surprise that it’s Wiz,” Shah said. “The Wiz is at the center of three tailwinds: AI, cloud and security spending.”
Read an excerpt of our conversation below, which has been edited for length and clarity. Shah kicked things off by noting, half-jokingly, that we might be understating things by calling the acquisition one of our deals of the week.
Shardul Shah: I think this should go down as the deal of the year or the decade, not just the week. Can we change this? Thank you.
But it’s really important to the industry. This is the largest venture-backed acquisition in history.
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Rebecca Bellan: Yes, we will solve it in the post[-production].
Shardul: And more critically, unsurprisingly, it’s the Wiz. The Wiz is at the center of three tailwinds: AI, cloud and security spending. And these are central today in light of the age of artificial intelligence where every workload needs to be secured. So we are proud to have been the company’s largest shareholder. And yes, I think it is at least [the] deal of the month.
Rebecca: So how long has it been? When did you initially invest in Wiz? Because this is the kind of exit I’m sure investors dream about.
Shardul: Is it six years or 16, is a question for us internally. About 10 years ago, I joined the board of directors of Assaf, Roy and Ami’s first company, Adallom. So we got a front row seat to how they make decisions, how they develop trust and how that has evolved over time.
Assaf called me on my birthday when he started Wiz. And the seed is when I got on the board.
Anthony Ha: Well, we’ve talked about this deal a few times before on the show, but since Wiz isn’t a consumer-facing company, I’m guessing some of our readers are familiar with it, some of them aren’t. Can you talk a little bit more about what it was – beyond sitting at the intersection of these very important sectors – that you think made Wiz such an attractive investment and ultimately such an attractive acquisition target?
Shardul: At Index, the core of our business is to focus on people. And I really think the core of the acquisition was the people. Assaf is this incredible leader who can make high-quality judgments. He has great intuition about people and markets. Two of its co-founders, Ami and Yinon [Costica]are almost always in conflict — Ami lives in the future, [Yinon] it’s very, very present, and Assaf has the ability to really decide which voice, at which moment, could lead. Roy is an execution machine.
So, together, they created that environment and culture of trust that allowed them to build a platform from the ground up and take on an existing category with unmatched speed.
Sean O’Kane: There’s this fun history — fun for us, especially because we got to push them at Disrupt a few years ago, where Google approached the company and [Assaf] he actually walked out of the deal. In that moment, does it almost feel like a validation for you, as someone who feels like you’ve found someone who you truly believe in and is willing to take a step that I think a lot of people would be afraid to take, in the face of such a big, at the time, exit? Maybe not as big as now, but close enough.
Shardul: Not really. Some of that is probably because I’m irreverent and external validation doesn’t matter, despite my insecurity about you calling it a deal of the week.
I said to the founders at one point, I think I believe in them more than I believe in themselves. The first blog I ever wrote for Index was titled “I’m learning to say no,” it’s actually addressed to the founders of Audible. […] When founders choose and make decisions, you trust the inputs like how they make decisions. You don’t really focus on the results and the luck associated with whether it gets validated or not.
Rebecca: How important was that in getting Wiz? Basically, it gets everything it can get from Google — funds, access to [Google’s] cloud and more resources, but is he still able to maintain his own sense of leadership?
Shardul: Therefore, perhaps for the public, Wiz aims to secure the cloud infrastructure and code in production. Most of their clients are part of what’s called the zero-judgment club, they have the framework to know what to prioritize and act on. Google’s resources, its infrastructure, its AI talent, allow Wiz to expand that recognition while maintaining that culture of trust and camaraderie.
Anthony: When we think of important acquisitions, they can be important in a number of ways. They can be transformative for the acquiring company. They can also transform the startup ecosystem because there are a lot of people who are going to make a lot of money from it. And then that potentially starts whole new industries, whole new startups.
So when you think about it as a big acquisition, what do you think will be the biggest impacts in the coming years?
Shardul: I think it starts with inspiration. I think there is a new imagination of what can be possible for entrepreneurs around the world. And that’s amazing, right?
I’m really proud that there are so many people whose lives will change as a function of this investment, that’s really important and rewarding. But I think what is more important is the talent, skills and ambitions of the entrepreneurs. So we can’t wait to see what the limits are for the next generation.
