Wiz’s $32B sale signals new era for Israeli tech as M&A boom accelerates
Global corporations are seizing the country’s best startups at an unprecedented pace.
Israel’s tech sector has felt the ripples of the Wiz-Google acquisition for a week now. As the dust settles and heads stop spinning, it is clear how much the deal represents so much more than a single successful tech exit. Despite its geopolitical challenges over the past 18 months, the country has remained an attractive M&A market to multinational corporations (MNCs) due to its culture of innovation and proof of resilience among its workforce.
“We see a growing confidence of foreign multinational corporations in Israel,” explained Yariv Becher, VP of Business Development and Partnerships at Startup National Central. “In a year that is challenging to say the least, you see companies doubling down and foreign multinational companies doubling down on their investments in Israel.”
Becher made the remarks following the release of Startup Nation Central’s annual report, published before the Wiz news, showing how 2024 marked Israel’s strongest year for acquisition-driven exits at the time. This includes those by multinationals with R&D and innovation operations in the country reaching new heights, such as Salesforce‘s $1.9 billion acquisition of Own and SAP‘s $1.5 billion purchase of WalkMe.
Other deals included Nvidia acquiring Run:AI for $800 million and AE Industrial Partners purchasing cybersecurity company Paragon for $900 million. “In 2024, MNCs demonstrated a resurgence in M&A activity, accounting for $10.7 billion in transaction value — an almost 69% share of total M&A amounts —marking the highest proportion in recent years,” said the report. “The total number of M&A events involving MNCs rose to 64 in 2024, comprising 58% of total transactions. This marks an impressive 93% increase from 33 events in 2023.”
All of these of course paled in comparison to the news last week that Alphabet would acquire Wiz for $32 billion, more than double the $15.6 billion that Startup Nation Central recorded as the total amount in 2024. The blockbuster news has injected a boost of optimism into the tech sector as it highlights how MNCs see Israel as a strategic focus to leverage its tech capabilities for a global market.
“I truly believe that as long as you have innovation, as long as you have new technology and new business coming from Israel, you will see M&A. The acquirers will always look for the best companies, the best teams, and the best technology to acquire,” said Idan Tendler, SVP Appsec at Palo Alto Networks after selling his startup Bridgecrew to the company. “More than ever, it delivers no matter what. The amount of innovation, technology, and products that came from Israel to the world, to global companies, to global customers actually increased in the last two years. And that shows the maturity of the tech industry and I think it shows that we're here to stay.”
Tendler maintains founders shouldn’t start a company with their acquisitions in mind, and that focus should always be to grow ‘the next Monday.com or next Wix’. Up until last week, Wiz was included in that roster as an example of a successful Israeli growth company. But $32 billion is a lot of money and no one seems surprised at the team taking the deal and seeing that money returned into Israeli society through taxes and “a real estate frenzy” brought on by bonuses.
“The maturity of the ecosystem with second and third-time entrepreneurs, even if they are first timers, they already had a significant experience as senior executives in multinationals that are operating here,” said Nir Adler, General Partner at State Of Mind Ventures. “Not just in the next few years, but over the decades, we will see more and more entrepreneurs not only with the appetite but with the ability to build these large companies.”
2025 is proving to be a resilient year in Israeli tech, and the historic M&A figures already being released are a sign that international optimism in Startup Nation and its entrepreneurs remains strong. The next few months will see Wiz and its story of success discussed: how it avoided growing into an independent powerhouse but how it also attracted so much economic and reputational repair for Israel following a slew of black swan events that took place at the start of the decade.
“In the M&A space, as an ecosystem, we have matured,” concluded Becher. “We are much more knowledgeable of cultural gaps that exist between Israel and other countries, and between startups and corporations.”
