By Steven Scheer
TEL AVIV (Reuters) -Israeli startup Wiz said on Thursday it had named veteran executive Fazal Merchant as president and chief financial officer to keep driving the cloud security firm’s growth and prepare for a U.S. share offering in about a year’s time.
Wiz last July rebuffed a reported $23 billion takeover deal by Google-parent Alphabet that would have made it the U.S. tech giant’s largest-ever acquisition. At the time, Wiz CEO Assaf Rappaport said the company would focus on an initial public offering and its goal of achieving an annual recurring revenue of $1 billion.
Industry sources said Wiz currently has annual revenue of about $500 million, as it has grown substantially since its founding in 2020 with half of the Fortune 100 companies as its customers.
Prior to Google’s offer, Wiz last May had raised $1 billion at a $12 billion valuation. In all, it has raised $1.9 billion in private financing and has used some funds to make acquisitions.
“The company is in a very healthy liquidity position,” Merchant told Reuters, noting that an IPO is a combination of a liquidity, financing and marketing event. “If you have investors and employees, at some point there is an expectation” of an IPO.
He said that a key initial aim of his would be IPO readiness for Wiz, which is headquartered in New York with its research and development in Tel Aviv.
“That could be a week, it could be a month, it could be a year,” Merchant said, “My sense is it’s probably in the ballpark of 12 months, plus or minus.”
Wiz, he said, aims to be the cloud security leader and “keep growing and hitting higher valuations.” He cited studies showing that just 15% of the world’s infrastructure was in the cloud, meaning there is still huge growth potential for cyber security firms as companies continue to shift data to the cloud.
“We have a lot of wind in our sails,” Merchant said, noting that Wiz was expanding in Europe and Asia.
Merchant most recently served as co-CEO of U.S. cyber security startup Tanium. He also was CFO of DreamWorks Animation SKG and managed its sale to Comcast. He had also held senior positions at DirecTV – guiding its sale to AT&T – Ford Motor Co, Barclays Capital, Royal Bank of Scotland and Ariel Investments.
(Reporting by Steven ScheerEditing by Tomasz Janowski)
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