How a $6M bet on Wiz turned into a massive 200x return for one early backer

Wiz’s $32 billion all-cash acquisition by Google parent Alphabet promises a colossal payday for the cybersecurity startup’s early-stage investors. The deal is a big win for Sequoia, one of the best-known VC firms, which stands to make $3 billion, about 25x the money it invested in the company, Bloomberg reported. Despite substantial returns for Sequoia’s limited partners, their percentage gains will be far less than those of another early Wiz backer: Israel-based VC Cyberstarts. Cybersecurity-focused Cyberstarts invested $6.4 million from its first $54 million fund towards Wiz’s seed round in February 2020. Today, that fund owns 4.1% of Wiz, which means it’s poised to make a whopping $1.3 billion on the deal, according to a person familiar with the firm’s performance. Cyberstarts also previously sold $120 million shares of Wiz in secondary transactions, bringing the fund’s total return to $1.42 billion — a remarkable 222x return on the original investment. Cyberstarts also particip ... Read full article.