Well-funded cybersecurity provider Wiz Inc. has bought Gem Security Inc., the developer of a platform for protecting cloud environments from hacker attacks.
The companies did not disclose the acquisition price in today’s deal announcement. Assets reported that the deal values Gem at $350 million, more than 10 times the $34 million it raised from investors. Its backers include venture capital arm IBM Corp. and Cisco Systems Inc.
“It’s the year of security consolidation, and this is our path forward,” Wiz co-founder and CEO Assaf Rappaport wrote in one Blog entry. “The dispersion of tools, silos and transparency gaps have led companies to actively promote supplier consolidation. To conquer the market, Wiz must solve this problem while continuing to push the boundaries of innovation and quickly simplify the complex.”
Founded in 2020, Wiz provides a platform that helps companies scan their cloud environments for cybersecurity issues. The software finds code vulnerabilities, data sets that are accessible to more users than they should, and other vulnerabilities. Additionally, Wiz can detect when hackers are attempting to exploit these vulnerabilities for a cyberattack.
A year and a half after launching its platform, the company revealed that annual recurring revenue had reached $100 million. A few weeks ago, Wiz Announced That number has since more than tripled and now stands at $350 million. The software maker has $900 million in funding and counts more than 40% of Fortune 100 companies as customers.
Gem was released in 2022, about two years after Wiz. It offers a cybersecurity platform that also focuses on helping companies protect their cloud environments from hackers. However, the platform offers different features than Wiz, including tools designed to ease data management tasks when detecting cyberattacks.
Large public cloud operators provide their customers with extensive telemetry data about their deployments. This telemetry includes, among other things, data on possible cybersecurity problems. However, reliably collecting and analyzing this information can be challenging and often leads to visibility gaps for cybersecurity teams.
Gem says its platform automatically identifies gaps in cybersecurity visibility, classifies them by severity, and generates suggestions for collecting more granular data. Furthermore, it promises to make the analysis of this data easier.
Many cybersecurity tools require users to configure detection rules and software workflows that determine which types of events should be flagged as malicious. For example, an administrator could configure a workflow that raises an alarm when an attempt is made to delete a sensitive database instance. Cybersecurity teams must establish more than hundreds of such rules to accommodate the large number of hacking tactics.
Gem ships its platform with hundreds of rules to save customers time. When the software detects malicious activity, it automatically creates a timeline describing what actions the hackers took and in what order. Administrators can review this timeline to identify opportunities to improve their organization’s cybersecurity posture.
The Gem acquisition is likely the first of several that Wiz will announce in 2024, Fortune reported. The company may plan to fund these acquisitions with the $800 million in new financing it is reportedly seeking from investors. Last month, the Financial Times reported that the round could value Wiz at more than $10 billion.