BREAKING: Google Completes $32B Wiz Acquisition | Gili Raanan, Cyberstarts
$6M Seed Check → $32 Billion Exit
$6M Seed Check → $32 Billion Exit
Gili Raanan is the Founder of Cyberstarts and one of the earliest investors behind Wiz, one of the most important cybersecurity companies of the modern era and now a $32B outcome. Before founding Cyberstarts, Gili spent nearly a decade at Sequoia and earlier built and sold 2 security companies to IBM and EMC. He also helped build the first real CAPTCHA implementation and the first web application firewall.
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In this conversation, Gili breaks down the Wiz story from the beginning: why he backed the team early with a $6M seed investment, how the company changed direction, what made its product market fit so powerful, & why its go to market motion scaled so unusually fast. He explains what made the founding team exceptional, what he learned from watching Wiz scale from a $66M seed valuation, & why he believes the next great cybersecurity company could be even bigger.
Beyond Wiz, Gili shares the Cyberstarts framework for investing before product, team, or code exists, why he underwrites people over ideas, & how AI agents are changing the future of cybersecurity.
Today Cyberstarts has raised $1.5B+ across 7 funds, backed 30 companies, and its portfolio represents over $61B in combined value (50% of the worldwide private cybersecurity companies market !!! ).
We cover:
• The early days of Wiz and how the company evolved from seed to a $32B outcome
• Why Wiz achieved such strong product market fit
• What made Assaf and the founding team special
• How Cyberstarts picks founders before there is product or code
• Why Gili believes AI could create the darkest decade in cybersecurity
• What the next generation of $50B–$100B cyber companies could look like
This conversation took place in London February 12th, 2026. Special thank you to J & family for letting us record in your gorgeous home. (Shoutout to Charlotte!)
𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐌𝐏𝐒
(00:00) Gili Raanan, Founder Cyberstarts
(01:05) From Sequoia to building a Cyber only venture fund
(04:39) Building CAPTCHA and the first web application firewall at 27
(09:15) Why he decided to focus only on cybersecurity
(12:45) The kind of founders he looks for
(19:00) A portfolio with 50% of private cyber market value
(26:30) What makes a company truly important
(30:48) Why do Israeli founders dominate cybersecurity?
(31:05) Helping founders become the best version of themselves
(37:06) Israeli culture, pressure, and resilience
(41:25) Breaking the ceiling with companies like Wiz
(46:15) Facing fears, Yoga & overcoming internal limits
(51:55) Why building startups is an emotional journey
(56:25) How cybersecurity ideas actually emerge
(01:06:45) Asimov’s laws of robotics and AI guardrails
(01:09:55) The three biggest cybersecurity risks in 2026
(01:12:25) Inside the $32B Wiz deal
(01:22:23) What makes Wiz co-founder Assaf exceptional
(01:28:48) The biggest takeaways from his time at Sequoia: Doug Leone, Mike Moritz
(01:32:05) What’s next for Cyberstarts?
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Gili Raanan, Cyberstarts, & the Human Side of Building Cybersecurity Giants
The “Godfather” of Cybersecurity
Cybersecurity has quietly become one of the most important technology markets in the world. As software, cloud infrastructure, and now AI agents reshape how organizations operate, the attack surface has expanded dramatically. Behind many of the most influential companies addressing that problem is Gili Raanan, founder of Cyberstarts.
From backing Wiz at the seed stage to helping build a portfolio worth tens of billions of dollars, Raanan has spent decades at the center of cybersecurity innovation. His story reflects not just the evolution of the cyber market, but a deeply human philosophy about what actually creates great companies.
Gili Stats:
Recipient of the Israel Defense Presidential Prize (1996)
Served in Unit 8200, the elite Israeli Intelligence Corps within the Israel Defense Forces
Recipient of the IDF Innovation Award (1992) for a decade of distinguished service
Inventor of CAPTCHA, one of the world’s most widely used security algorithms - which was acquired by EMC and IBM
Helped build the first Web Application Firewall (WAF)
Holder of 10 additional U.S. patents across security and application management
Later went on to build two enterprise software companies that were acquired by EMC and IBM.
Decade as GP at Sequoia
Joined Sequoia Capital in 2009 as a venture investor, where he led cybersecurity, internet, mobile, and technology investments in Israel
Served nearly nine years as a General Partner before leaving in 2018 to found Cyberstarts
Building Cyberstarts
Cyberstarts was founded with a simple but unusual thesis: cybersecurity deserved a dedicated venture platform built specifically for the category.
While most venture firms operate as broad generalists, Cyberstarts focuses almost entirely on cybersecurity at the earliest stages. The firm often invests before products, teams, or even code exist, partnering with founders at the idea stage.
Today the firm has:
Over $1.4B in capital raised across multiple funds
Around 30 portfolio companies
More than $60B in combined portfolio value
Some of the most notable companies backed by Cyberstarts include:
Wiz
Cyera
Island
Fireblocks
Upwind
The firm has also produced a series of successful acquisitions across the cybersecurity ecosystem, helping establish Cyberstarts as one of the most focused and successful investors in the sector.
The Wiz Story
Among Cyberstarts’ investments, Wiz stands as the most visible example of the firm’s model working at scale.
Founded in 2020, Wiz quickly became one of the fastest-growing enterprise software companies ever built. The company developed a cloud security platform designed to help organizations understand and secure complex cloud environments.
Raanan was the first seed investor in Wiz, backing the company with an early investment of roughly $6M.
Within a few years, Wiz grew into a global cybersecurity leader, culminating in a $32B acquisition by Alphabet, the parent company of Google. The deal is widely considered the largest cybersecurity exit in history.
For Raanan, however, the success of Wiz was not simply about timing or market opportunity. It came down to people.
Investing in People Before Ideas
One of the defining elements of the Cyberstarts model is Raanan’s belief that people matter far more than ideas at the earliest stages of a company.
Markets evolve. Products change. Entire technology categories can appear overnight. But founders, their motivations, and their resilience tend to persist.
For this reason, Cyberstarts frequently invests before there is a defined product. The firm focuses on identifying founders with the conviction and stamina to build something meaningful over many years.
Raanan often looks for individuals who have experienced adversity or who possess a strong sense of personal mission. In his view, building an enduring company inevitably involves periods of difficulty and uncertainty. Founders who have already developed resilience tend to navigate those moments better.
This philosophy was evident in the founding team of Wiz, led by Assaf Rappaport, whose previous company Adallom was acquired by Microsoft.
The Kind of Founder Gili Raanan Looks For
One of the defining principles behind Cyberstarts is Raanan’s belief that founders matter far more than ideas in the earliest stages of a company.
Markets change quickly. Technologies evolve. Entire categories can emerge overnight. But the character of the founder tends to remain constant.
Because Cyberstarts often invests before a product exists, Raanan focuses intensely on the personal traits of the founders themselves.
Several qualities consistently stand out:
Resilience Through Adversity
Raanan frequently speaks about the importance of adversity in shaping founders. In his experience, the best builders are rarely people whose paths were completely smooth.
Instead, they are individuals who have faced meaningful challenges early in life and learned how to recover from setbacks.
Building a company inevitably involves moments when things go wrong — product failures, market shifts, financing challenges. Founders who have already developed resilience are often better prepared to navigate those periods.
Mission Over Status
Another trait Raanan looks for is genuine motivation to solve an important problem, rather than simply building a company for financial outcomes or prestige.
The founders who succeed in cybersecurity often have a deep personal connection to the problem they are trying to solve. Many have spent years working inside security systems, understanding their weaknesses and the real-world consequences of failure.
That sense of mission tends to sustain them through the long process of building a company.
Intellectual Curiosity
Cybersecurity evolves quickly, which makes intellectual curiosity essential. Raanan values founders who constantly ask questions, challenge assumptions, and adapt their thinking as technology changes.
The most successful founders, in his view, are those who treat company building as a continuous learning process.
Humility and Team Orientation
Finally, Raanan pays close attention to how founders work with others. Great cybersecurity companies are rarely built by a single individual. They require strong teams that combine technical depth, product design, and go-to-market execution.
Founders who are collaborative, self-aware, and capable of building trust within a team often scale their organizations more effectively.
These traits were clearly visible in the founding team of Wiz, led by Assaf Rappaport, whose previous company Adallom was acquired by Microsoft.
Israel’s Cybersecurity Advantage
Cyberstarts is deeply connected to Israel’s cybersecurity ecosystem, which has produced an outsized number of influential security companies over the past two decades.
Several structural factors contribute to this phenomenon.
Israel’s technology ecosystem is heavily influenced by elite military intelligence units such as Unit 8200, where many engineers gain early exposure to real-world cyber threats and complex infrastructure systems.
That experience often translates into founders who have already worked on large-scale security problems before entering the startup world.
Additionally, the Israeli startup culture emphasizes speed, technical depth, and direct communication. These characteristics can produce companies capable of moving quickly through early development cycles.
Companies like Wiz demonstrate how this environment can generate globally significant cybersecurity businesses.
Lessons from Sequoia
Before founding Cyberstarts, Raanan spent nearly a decade as a partner at Sequoia Capital, one of Silicon Valley’s most influential venture firms.
During that period, he worked alongside prominent investors including Doug Leone and Michael Moritz.
From Sequoia, Raanan absorbed several core principles that still shape his approach today.
First, the importance of conviction. The most successful investments often look uncertain or unconventional at the moment they are made.
Second, the importance of long-term thinking. Building a great company can take a decade or more, and investors must be willing to support founders through that journey.
Finally, Sequoia reinforced the idea that venture capital is ultimately about identifying and supporting exceptional people.
Purpose Beyond Returns
Despite the scale of Cyberstarts’ financial success, Raanan often frames his work in broader terms.
For him, the goal is not simply to build valuable companies, but to help founders create important companies — organizations whose products become essential infrastructure for their customers.
In cybersecurity, that mission carries additional weight. Security companies play a direct role in protecting businesses, governments, and individuals from increasingly sophisticated threats.
As artificial intelligence, automation, and cloud infrastructure continue to expand, the importance of cybersecurity will only grow.
In that sense, Cyberstarts is not simply backing startups. It is helping shape the next generation of companies responsible for securing the digital world.
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