When Shardul Shah, a senior partner in the Index Ventures fund, first met Wiz cofounder and CEO Assaf Rappaport, matters did not go according to the arranged timetable. "Assaf was 45 minutes late," Shah remembers with a smile. "As an Indian, I'm used to people being late, but this was still a little much." The immediate chemistry between the two men nevertheless overcame Rappaport's tardiness and the meeting lasted an hour and a half. "On the weekend, I couldn't stop thinking about what had happened there," Shah says. The result was extraordinarily fast: "We signed a term sheet the very next day."
In retrospect, this early investment turned out to be one of the most successful in the history of Israeli tech. Over the past 24 hours, a huge deal was officially closed in which Google acquired Wiz, a cloud security company founded in 2020, in a $32 billion deal - the largest in the history of Israeli industry and also Google's largest-ever acquisition. Shah, one of the first investors in Wiz and currently its largest shareholder through Index Ventures, has closely followed Wiz's journey from its earliest days before the company even had a product until it became one of the world's fastest-growing cybersecurity companies. According to Shah, from a broader perspective, in addition to being a key business event, the deal also marks a turning point for the entire Israeli tech industry.
"Wiz was at the exact intersection between cloud computing and AI"
"Globes": What was the past year like between the announcement of the deal and its completion?
Shah: "Such a year is always accompanied by uncertainty, but Wiz's momentum spoke for itself. We are in an era in which AI is changing every field and every AI application requires security. Wiz realized this very early on and positioned itself at the exact intersection between cloud computing and AI. This is the position for which the company has been preparing for years. When the demand exploded, they were already there.
"Wiz became one of the world's fastest-growing software companies. When a company is on such a path, its momentum simply makes many things around it come together."
"Globes": How did the company manage to maintain its growth rate while the deal was awaiting regulatory approval?
"I've known these entrepreneurs for over a decade. During this entire time, I saw how they behaved in moments of uncertainty from every direction. What makes them special is not just the speed at which they move, but the level of trust between them."
Shah emphasizes that this trust is one of the company's most important assets. "When there is a group of people who trust each other so profoundly, it's an enormous advantage in the long term. Assaf is an exceptional leader. He moves very quickly and knows how to attract excellent people to the team and forge a talent-attracting culture."
Shah says that the trust between the four cofounders is a critical element in their success. "Ami (Luttwak, CTO) always thinks ahead and tries to imagine the market's future. Yinon (Costica, VP product) is closely connected to performance and the current promises that must be kept. Roy (Reznik, VP R&D) has phenomenal execution capability and internal serenity that balances everything. Together, they are a rare combination."
"The product and market change - but the people remain the same"
"Globes": What made Google decide that Wiz was worth such a high price?
"What we at Index Venture have always believed is that the best investment is in people. A product and a market can change, but extraordinary people are able to adapt and rebuild again and again. When I look at the world's biggest companies, whether Apple or Google, it all boils down to the people who lead them."
According to Shah, this is what made the deal attractive to Google. "Large companies have almost unlimited resources. They can build many things by themselves, but they're looking for teams who can see the future faster than others and construct something unique around it. That's exactly what happened here.
"Israel was branded as a startup nation a long time ago," Shah notes, "but success on the scale of Wiz enables the founders to imagine much bigger results in a much shorter time. We're already seeing this come true."
Shah says that the "Wiz effect" is more concrete than ever. "We invested in more than eight Israeli companies over the past year, some of which were founded by former Wiz employees. This is exactly the process that happens when a company succeeds on such a scale - the talents come from it to build the next generation." Shah predicts that AI will only accelerate this trend. "Today's tools enable a small team to be more productive than ever and to rapidly achieve global influence. The question is no longer how many people you recruited; it is which singular people are leading you."
An investment romantic: "You have to feel the chemistry face-to-face"
Wiz's journey is also replete with unforgettable moments for Shah. One of them happened on his birthday. "I well remember the conversation with Assaf. He called to invite me to join the board of directors," he reminisces with a smile. "It was the best birthday present I ever received - except for my wife's gift, of course," he quips.
For Shah, relations between investors and entrepreneurs are the heart of the matter. "Entrepreneurs have to know that someone is backing them, that someone is there for them at the toughest moments." When asked whether he will be able to fall in love again with a company the way he did with Wiz, he grins and says, "I'm a romantic and an idealist, so yes - I believe that it can happen again."
Actually, it really did happen to him recently. One of the Wiz founders put him in touch with a pair of Israeli entrepreneurs who founded a new startup. Following an initial Zoom session, Shah made it clear to them that he did not invest remotely. "I have to feel the chemistry face-to-face," he comments.
The two Israeli entrepreneurs did not hesitate. They jumped on a plane stopping in Italy and landed in New York. "We spent an entire day together," he recalls. "We walked around Central Park, went to a magic show - I'm a real fan of magic shows - and we talked about the company for hours." By the end of that weekend, the decision had already been taken. "We shook hands and embarked on our shared road," Shah recounts.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on March 11, 2026.
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