Wiz acquires Dazz for $450 million to expand its cybersecurity platform.

Wiz, a prominent name in the field of cybersecurity, has made a strategic acquisition to expand its product offerings in the cloud security sector, focusing particularly on developers. The company has acquired Dazz, a company specialized in security remediation and risk management, in a deal reportedly valued at $450 million in cash and stock. This amount is slightly higher than Dazz's last valuation, which had raised $50 million at a post-money valuation of around $400 million.

The areas of remediation and posture management, in which Dazz specializes, are key services within the cybersecurity market that Wiz had not been able to optimally cover. "Dazz is the leader in this sector, with the best talent and the best clients, in addition to sharing a great culture," commented Assaf Rappaport, CEO of Wiz, in an interview. Remediation refers to helping organizations understand and resolve vulnerabilities, impacting how they manage the multiple vulnerability alerts they may receive on their networks. On the other hand, posture management is a more preventive product that provides a better understanding of the size, shape, and function of an organization’s network to develop better security services.

Dazz will continue to operate as a separate entity while integrating into the broader company structure. Wiz has solidified its position as an "all-in-one" solution, and Rappaport noted that an integrated offering will remain an essential component of its strategy, in contrast to many other SaaS companies that prioritize revenue over creating effective technology as a platform.

The two companies already had a close relationship prior to this transaction. Merav Bahat, CEO and co-founder of Dazz, worked closely with Rappaport at Microsoft, which acquired his previous startup, Adallom. Bahat had also been one of the early investors in Adallom. Beyond their professional relationship, Bahat and Rappaport are close friends, and she was a second family to Mika, Rappaport's beloved dog, known as Wiz's Chief Dog Officer.

Recently, rumors about this acquisition emerged, which Rappaport confirmed as the beginning of serious discussions. Earlier this year, Google attempted to acquire Wiz for $23 billion to build a significant cybersecurity company, but Wiz opted not to proceed with the deal, under the impression that it could grow more as an independent organization. This agreement is part of a series of strategic acquisitions, as the company raised $1 billion for mergers and acquisitions, having raised nearly $2 billion to date.

Wiz seeks to develop more tools that developers need to perform their work. Companies have made significant investments in cloud services, leading to a more complex and complicated security profile, especially given the complexity that artificial intelligence introduces. Wiz's value proposition lies in its comprehensive approach, which includes collecting data from environments such as AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud, and offering a variety of products that cover areas such as code security and supply chain security.

Dazz, which reports annual recurring revenues in the tens of millions and a 500% growth with approximately 100 client organizations, aligns with Wiz's ambition to raise its annual recurring revenue to $1 billion in the coming year, already serving over 45% of Fortune 100 companies.