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Google closed its $32 billion acquisition<\/a> of cybersecurity company Wiz this week \u2014 the biggest acquisition in Google\u2019s history, as well as the largest ever acquisition of a venture-backed startup.<\/p>\n On the latest episode of TechCrunch\u2019s Equity podcast<\/a>, Rebecca Bellan, Sean O\u2019Kane, and I were joined by Shardul Shah, a partner at Wiz\u2019s largest shareholder Index Ventures. Shah walked us through his history with Wiz, which extends before Wiz itself \u2014 he previously backed Adallom, the startup previously founded by Wiz\u2019s Assaf Rappaport, Ami Luttwak, and Roy Reznik.\u00a0<\/p>\n 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\u2019s previous acquisition offer.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s no surprise that it\u2019s Wiz,\u201d Shah said. \u201cWiz is at the center of three tailwinds: AI, cloud, and security spend.\u201d<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Shardul Shah:<\/strong> I think this should qualify as deal of the year or decade, not just the week. Can we change that? Thank you.<\/p>\n But it is really important for the industry. This is the largest venture-backed acquisition in history.<\/p>\n Techcrunch event<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSan Francisco, CA<\/span> Rebecca Bellan:<\/strong> Yeah, we\u2019ll work that out in post[-production].<\/p>\n Shardul:<\/strong> And more critically, it\u2019s no surprise that it\u2019s 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\u2019re super proud that we were the largest shareholder in the company. And yes, I think it\u2019s at least [the] deal of the month.<\/p>\n Rebecca<\/strong>: So how long has it been? When did you initially invest in Wiz? Because this is the kind of exit that I\u2019m sure investors dream about.<\/p>\n Shardul:<\/strong> 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.<\/p>\n Assaf called me on my birthday when he started Wiz. And the seed round is when I joined the board.<\/p>\n Anthony Ha:<\/strong> So, we\u2019ve talked about this deal a couple of times before on the show, but because Wiz isn\u2019t a consumer-facing company, I\u2019m 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 \u2014 beyond just sitting at the intersection of these really important sectors \u2014 that you think made Wiz both an appealing investment and then eventually such an appealing acquisition target?<\/p>\n Shardul:<\/strong> 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\u2019s got great intuition about people and markets. Two of his co-founders, Ami and Yinon [Costica], are almost always in contention \u2014 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.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Sean O\u2019Kane:<\/strong> There\u2019s this fun history \u2014 fun for us, especially because we got to push them on it at Disrupt a couple of years ago<\/a>, 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\u2019ve 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.<\/p>\n Shardul:<\/strong> Not really. Some of it is probably because I\u2019m irreverent and external validation doesn\u2019t matter, despite my insecurity about you describing this as deal of the week.<\/p>\n
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