Four months after spurning at $23 billion bid by Google, high-flying cloud security company Wiz is bolstering the security remediation and risk management capabilities of its cloud-native platform by acquiring Israeli startup Dazz.
Wiz, a four-year-old company that saw its valuation this year rise to $12 billion, will add Dazz’s AI-powered security remediation and risk management technology to its cloud-native application protection platform (CNAPP) for customers and MSSP partners, according to Wiz co-founder and CEO Assaaf Rappaport.
“With Dazz’s industry-leading remediation engine, we can empower security teams to correlate data from multiple sources and manage application risks in one unified platform,” Rappaport wrote in a blog post. “Their advanced mapping capabilities pinpoint root issues, enabling engineers to address vulnerabilities directly in the code while seamlessly integrating vital cloud context into security workflows.”
“Wiz is one platform for the modern cloud security operating model, from cloud to code,” Bahat wrote in a blog post, noting the rapid adoption of the cloud and AI and the acceleration of cyberattacks. “The Wiz team is fully committed to enabling faster, more effective resolution of cloud risks, right at the source.”
No financial details about the deal were released, although TechCrunch, citing unnamed sources, said Wiz will pay $450 million. This is its second acquisition this year after buying cloud threat detection firm Gem Security for $350 million and the fourth since 2022. Dazz was founded in 2021. The acquisition will be a boon for the startup’s customers and partners, according to co-founder and CEO Merav Bahat.
Extending the Platform's Reach
The acquisition comes two months after Wiz unveiled Wiz Code, which extended the reach of its cloud platform into the developer realm so that its security capabilities can be woven into software from the beginning. It was an important move for Wiz, making it a multi-product company with a larger presence.
With Wiz Code, every organization “can secure their cloud-native applications at every stage of development, protecting their code, CI/CD systems, and infrastructure in one unified platform,” Yinon Costica, Wiz co-founder and vice president of product, wrote at the time, noting that “modern development practices like DevOps, containerization, and Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC) have blurred the lines between code and infrastructure.”
Given that, application and cloud security should no longer be treated as separate concerns, Costica wrote. Doing so is inefficient and has led to gaps in security. The addition of Dazz’s technologies will allow security and engineering teams to better mitigate threats and remediate risks.
Wiz’s platform now includes Wiz Code to secure cloud development, Wiz Cloud for managing security postures, and Wiz Defend to respond to threats. Dazz’s technology, which uses AI and automation detect, report, and remediate security vulnerabilities in cloud platforms, will be integrated into Wiz’s platform.
M&A in Security
The deal for Dazz will help Wiz – which partners with such cloud providers as Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform, and Oracle Cloud Infrastructure – expand its platform as it looks to compete better with the larger players and is part of a larger M&A trend in security as security becomes more of a system play rather than a component play, according to Jack Gold, principal analyst with J.Gold Associates.
“Anything a company can do to expand capabilities means enterprises and SMBs can have a single player to deal with in an integrated fashion rather than having myriad components it needs to piece together,” Gold told MSSP Alert, adding that Wiz executives are pushing ahead after the Google bid. “Wiz thinks it can be a successful company on its own, and as it expands its markets and sales, it thinks Google’s offer is too low. If Wiz can keep expanding, it can probably bring a much higher market valuation than the Google offer.”
Wiz’s aggressive strategy also will benefit MSSPs that work with it. The company last year unveiled its Wiz Integration (WIN) Platform, which provides security integrations so organizations can share security information with Wiz and its third-party partners. In August, Wiz announced a partnership with Expel to combine the MSSP’s cloud detection and response capabilities with Wiz’s CNAPP platform.
“Being able to offer a broader capability from Wiz means two things [for MSSPs] – having an ability to better service the customer’s needs while also being able to increase revenues as you offer more capabilities,” Gold said.
