Startup News: Fast-growing Wiz gearing up to hit $1B in annual recurring revenue
Wiz, a cloud-security startup, has reached $350 million in annual recurring revenue and a remarkable $10 billion in valuation in the four years since its 2020 founding.
Tel Aviv-based Wiz is now gearing up for the ambitious goal of scaling to $1 billion in annual recurring revenue or ARR.
To help achieve that goal, the company announced last week that it hired Dali Rajic as Wiz’s president and chief operating officer, the company’s top executive behind CEO and cofounder Assaf Rappaport.
Rajic, a tech industry veteran, “will oversee Wiz’s growth strategy and operating models and help steer the company through the next phases of its rapid growth on the road to IPO,” the release said.
Wiz is in the process of adding to its current base of over 900 employees spread throughout the United States, Europe, Asia, and Israel.
Among some of Wiz’s customers are Salesforce, Slack, BMW, Avery Dennison, Priceline, Cushman & Wakefield, and DocuSign. Wiz has received financial backing from investors including Sequoia, Index Ventures, Insight Partners, Salesforce, Blackstone, Advent, Greenoaks, and Lightspeed.
The company achieved its $10 billion valuation in February 2023.
KoBold metals discovers big copper deposit with AI help
KoBold Metals has gained attention in part because of its high-profile investors. Among the venture capitalists behind the San Francisco-based high-tech mining exploration company are Breakthrough Energy Ventures, which is backed by Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos, Andreessen Horowitz, and mutual-fund giant T. Rowe Price.
Last week, the company gave those investors something to cheer about. A spokesperson for KoBold Metals told CNBC that the company has discovered a major copper deposit in the African nation of Zambia, adding that the find at its Mingomba project will be “one of the world’s biggest high-grade copper mines.”
According to an article on the CNBC website, the rare discovery of a large-scale copper deposit could help in the global race to secure a supply of materials critical to the energy transition from fossil fuels to more sustainable, lower-carbon fuels. Copper is a key component of the world’s push toward a greener economy due in part to its use in electric vehicles. Founded in 2018, Kobold has developed AI technologies to help in the discovery of deposits of metals and minerals such as cobalt, nickel, copper, and lithium. As of June 2023, the company was valued at $1.17 billion.
Founded in 2018, Kobold has developed AI technologies to help in the discovery of deposits of metals and minerals such as cobalt, nickel, copper, and lithium. As of June 2023, the company was valued at $1.17 billion.
EnergyX acquired by Apogee Interactive
Energy X Solutions has an unusual niche in the energy industry. The Toronto-based company provides software that allows electric utilities to leverage data science to increase customer participation in energy efficiency programs.
And this specialty is of value to Apogee Interactive, which announced last week that it is purchasing EnergyX. The acquisition is Apogee’s third in the last 12 months, “building on its strategy to offer the first complete suite of solutions that will enable utilities to more broadly engage with their customers and drive better program adoption,” Apogee said in its press release.
Founded in 1993, Apogee, which is based in Atlanta, Georgia, is a provider of customer engagement software for utilities. EnergyX's main technology, known as RetrofitAI, allows utilities to perform cost-effective virtual audits at scale across their entire service territory resulting in increased customer segmentation and energy efficiency.