Cybersecurity firm Wizz, which last month rejected a $23 billion (£18 billion) takeover bid from Google parent Alphabet, is to open its European headquarters in London, a major boost for Britain's ambitions to become a global tech hub.
The new office, the company's first in Europe, will be run by co-founder and head of research and development Roy Resnick, who is relocating from Israel to the UK capital to underline the company's ambitions in the region.
Wizz is likely to embark on a hiring drive as it aims to increase its UK headcount by 100 people by the end of this year and generate 35% of its total revenue from Europe, the Middle East and Africa by the end of next year.
Wiz already has dozens of UK-based employees, but they are focused on sales and marketing and do not have an office, and hiring plans also include building out engineering, research and development capabilities.
Wiz offers a service that scans data on cloud storage providers such as Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure for security risks.
The company has partnerships with companies such as ASOS, the Bank of England and Revolut in the UK, and Shell, BMW and luxury goods conglomerate LVMH in Europe.
“The UK is home to many of the world's leading brands and top tech talent, which we see as key to Wizz's growth and expansion,” Resnick told the Guardian.
“Organizations in this market are adopting the cloud and leveraging the transformative impact of artificial intelligence (AI). At the same time, with only 10% of data migrated to the cloud to date, we see almost limitless growth potential,” he added.
The company generated $350 million in annual revenue last year and is on pace to reach $500 million this year. Wizz's goal is to reach $1 billion in annual revenue, after which it will consider strategic options.
Alphabet had been in talks to acquire Wizz as it seeks to catch up with rivals Microsoft and Amazon in the fiercely competitive cloud-services market.
Wizz executives acknowledged last month that it would be “painful” to turn down such a big offer but said the goal remains growth and an eventual public offering. But the New York-based startup said it plans to list in the U.S., not London.
There had been skepticism that the Alphabet deal would pass regulatory scrutiny as regulators try to toughen their grip on acquisitions of big technology companies.
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In June, the US Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission agreed to investigate key players in the AI market, including Microsoft, OpenAI, and Nvidia.
Adobe in December abandoned a $20 billion (£16 billion) bid to buy smaller rival Figma after European and British regulators expressed concerns it would eliminate competition in the product design software market.
In May, Wiz announced it had raised $1 billion at a $12 billion valuation in a round led by Andreessen Horowitz, Lightspeed Venture Partners and Thrive Capital.
The company has secured a total of $1.9 billion in funding since its founding in 2020.
