Israeli cybersecurity startup Wiz ranks in the top 5 of CNBC’s 2023 Disruptor 50 list with a $10 billion valuation

CNBC, a business and finance news outlet owned by NBCUniversal, has released its 2023 Disruptor 50 list. The eleventh annual Disruptor 50 list showcases private tech startup companies that are disrupting the industry through innovation and bringing radical changes. Despite a tough capital markets environment and the slowing economy, these companies are chasing some of the market’s biggest opportunities and growing rapidly.

The top five companies on this year’s list include well-known startups such as OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, in the first position. In second place is Brex, a unicorn fintech based in Silicon Valley. In the third position is Canva, a startup that represents a new face in graphic design. The fourth place is held by Relativity Space, the first company to launch a 3D-printed rocket. Finally, in fifth place is Israeli cybersecurity startup, Wiz.

What makes Wiz’s presence on this so special is the fact this Israeli cybersecurity startup has only been around for three years, yet it has managed to secure a spot on the coveted list. What’s even more remarkable is that Wiz’s success has come at a time when the tech industry has been hit hard by economic woes and workforce reductions. Despite these challenges, Wiz has continued to grow at an unprecedented rate.

The announcement also comes just two months after Wiz’s rapid ascent to a $10 billion valuation following a $300 million in private funding led by Lightspeed Venture Partners and existing investors Greenoaks Capital Partners and Index Ventures.

We covered Wiz back in 2021 after the company raised $250 million in a private funding round, more than tripling its valuation to $6 billion, making it a new member of the highly-coveted unicorn club. While most tech companies are conducting layoffs, Wiz, instead, has grown its employee count from 65 in March 2021 to become a 700-person startup company.

Wiz CEO Assaf Rappaport also told CNBC the company “has been taking cloud security business from Palo Alto Networks.” Its client list now includes Chipotle, Colgate-Palmolive, Morgan Stanley, and Snowflake.

“For us, it’s still an unlimited market,” Assaf Rappaport, Wiz’s co-founder and CEO, told CNBC in an interview. “The opportunity is still huge, so we can still grow in triple digits a year, and even in a downturn and potential recession.”

Wiz was co-founded in 2020 by four Israeli founders Yinon Costica, Ami Luttwak, Assaf Rappaport, and Roy Reznik. They sold their previous security startup company, Adallom, to Microsoft for a reported $320 million in 2015. It said its platform is used by 15% of Fortune 500 companies.