Google closed its $32 billion acquisition of cybersecurity company Wiz this week -- the biggest acquisition in Google's history, as well as the largest ever 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 extends 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 appealing acquisition target, and how he responded when Wiz walked away from Google's previous acquisition offer.
"It's no surprise that it's Wiz," Shah said. "Wiz is at the center of three tailwinds: AI, cloud, and security spend."
Read an excerpt of our conversation, edited for length and clarity, below. Shah kicked things off by noting, half-jokingly, that we may have been underselling things by calling the acquisition one of our deals of the week.
Shardul Shah: I think this should qualify as deal of the year or decade, not just the week. Can we change that? Thank you.
But it is really important for the industry. This is the largest venture-backed acquisition in history.
Rebecca Bellan: Yeah, we'll work that out in post[-production].
Shardul: And more critically, it's no surprise that it's Wiz. Wiz is at the center of three tailwinds: AI, cloud, and security spend. And those are central today in light of the AI era where every single workload needs to be secured. So we're super proud that we were the largest shareholder in the company. And yes, I think it's 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 that 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 Assaf, Roy, and Ami first company, Adallom. So we got a front row seat at how they make decisions, how they develop trust and how that evolved over time.
Assaf called me on my birthday when he started Wiz. And the seed round is when I joined the board.
Anthony Ha: So, we've talked about this deal a couple of times before on the show, but because Wiz isn't a consumer-facing company, I'm guessing some of our readers are familiar with it, some of it are not. Can you talk a little bit more about what it was -- beyond just sitting at the intersection of these really important sectors -- that you think made Wiz both an appealing investment and then eventually such an appealing 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 judgment calls. He's got great intuition about people and markets. Two of his co-founders, Ami and Yinon [Costica], are almost always in contention -- Ami lives in the future, [Yinon] is very, very present and Assaf has the ability to really make a decision on which voice, in which moment, might lead the way. Roy is an execution machine.
So together, they created this environment and culture of trust that allowed them to build a platform from the get-go and take on an existing category with unrivaled speed.
Sean O'Kane: There's this fun history -- fun for us, especially because we got to push them on it at Disrupt a couple of years ago, where Google approached the company and [Assaf] actually walked away from the deal. In that moment, does that almost feel validating for you, as someone who feels like you've identified somebody 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 pretty close.
Shardul: Not really. Some of it is probably because I'm irreverent and external validation doesn't matter, despite my insecurity about you describing this as deal of the week.
I did tell 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 "Learning to Say No," actually directed at the Audible founders. [...] When founders choose and make decisions, you trust the inputs, like how they make decisions. You don't really concentrate on the outputs and the luck that goes into whether it's validated or not.
Rebecca: How important was that in the acquisition of Wiz? Basically, that it's getting what it can get from Google -- funds, access to [Google's] cloud, and more resources, but still able to maintain its own sense of leadership?
Shardul: So to your point, maybe for the audience, Wiz aims to secure cloud infrastructure and code in production. Most of their customers are part of what's called a zero critical club, they have the context to know what to prioritize and what to act on. Google's resources, the infrastructure, the AI talent they have, allows Wiz to extend that recognition while retaining this culture of trust and camaraderie.
Anthony: When we think about important acquisitions, they can be important in a number of different ways. They can be transformative for the acquiring company. They can also be transformative to the startup ecosystem because there's a lot of people who are going to make a lot of money from this. And then that potentially starts whole new industries, whole new startups.
So when you think about this as a big acquisition, what do you think are going to be the biggest impacts over the next few years?
Shardul: I think it starts with inspiration. I think there's a new imagination for what can be possible for entrepreneurs across the globe. And that's amazing, right?
I'm really proud that there's so many people whose lives will change as a function of this investment, that's really meaningful and fulfilling. But I think what's more important is the talent, the skills, and the aspirations of entrepreneurs. So we can't wait to see what the limits are for the next generation.
