A Wiz employee used Equitybee to fund the exercise of their stock options without spending any personal savings. When Google completed its $32 billion acquisition of Wiz in March 2026, this employee retained $5,198,494 in proceeds.
Equitybee connects employees with investors who cover the exercise cost; employees repay only if the company has a successful exit. Wiz's journey from a 2020 founding to a $32 billion acquisition by Google made timely option exercise especially critical for employees holding vested equity.
Wiz acquired by Google / Alphabet - M&A, March 2026
$168,003
$5,198,494
64.17%
Wiz grew at a pace rarely seen in cybersecurity. Founded in January 2020, the company reached a $6 billion valuation by October 2021 and was valued at $12 billion by May 2024. For employees holding stock options, this rapid growth created a significant dilemma: exercising options required spending tens of thousands of dollars out of pocket, with no guarantee of a future liquidity event.This dilemma is not unique to Wiz. But like many startup employees, deciding how and when to exercise stock options isn't always straightforward.
Common considerations employees faced:
• Exercising can require tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars upfront
• Taxes, particularly AMT on ISOs, often create unexpected additional liabilities
• Employees may not want to lock up personal savings in a single illiquid, high-risk asset
• According to Carta, nearly 70% of employees ultimately walk away from their equity
For Wiz employees, the combination of rapid valuation growth and substantial exercise costs made Equitybee's non-recourse funding model especially relevant.
A Wiz employee used Equitybee to fund their stock option exercises in August 2022, securing a total of $168,003 in funding to cover exercise costs.
Here is how it worked for this Wiz employee:
• No personal cash required to exercise
• No loans, no debt, no personal liability*
• Equitybee investors provided the full exercise capital
• The employee retained their shares and became a full shareholder
• Repayment occurred only after Google's acquisition of Wiz
Whether the motivation was affordability, risk management, or simply preferring not to tie up personal capital in a single illiquid asset, Equitybee enabled this Wiz employee to become a shareholder without the typical financial burden.
*Assumes you comply with the agreement terms.
When Google completed its $32 billion acquisition of Wiz on March 11, 2026, this employee was a shareholder. The acquisition triggered on March 25, 2026, and proceeds were distributed on April 8, 2026. Through Equitybee, this employee participated in Wiz's acquisition upside without risking any of their own capital.
A Wiz employee retained $5,198,494 in proceeds from Google's $32 billion acquisition of Wiz after using Equitybee to fund the exercise of their stock options, without having spent any of their own savings.
$168,003
$8,101,548
$5,198,494
64.17%
The data above reflects start-up employees that received funding to exercise their stock options through the US subsidiary Equitybee Securities Inc. Equitybee executes private financing contracts( PFCs). PFCs could limit your profits. PFCs are brokered by Equitybee Securities LLC, member FINRA.
Wiz is another example: exercising stock options is not just about affordability - it is about timing, risk exposure, liquidity preference, and long-term financial strategy.
Thousands of startup employees have already used Equitybee to fund the exercise of their stock options, including employees at Reddit, SpaceX, Databricks, Klarna, Stripe, Monday.com, Affirm, Rippling, Discord, Groq, and many others.
As of the date this case study was published, Equitybee has facilitated $317M+ in total capital, created 2,800+ new shareholders, and funded employees across 890+ pre-IPO companies.
Frequently asked questions
A Wiz employee used Equitybee's non-recourse funding model to cover the full cost of exercising their stock options in August 2022. Equitybee connected them with investors who provided $168,003 in capital, covering the exercise price. The employee retained their shares and became a full shareholder, repaying only after Google's acquisition of Wiz in March 2026.
The Wiz employee who exercised their stock options through Equitybee retained $5,198,494 in proceeds from Google's $32 billion acquisition. The employee kept approximately 64% of the upside from their exercised options. Through Equitybee, this employee participated in Wiz's acquisition upside without risking any of their own capital.
Non-recourse stock option funding is a financing model where an investor covers the cost of exercising an employee's stock options. The employee retains their shares and only repays from the proceeds if there is a liquidity event that results in the shares becoming liquid, such as an IPO, acquisition, tender offer, or secondary sale. If no such event occurs, the employee owes nothing. As of the date this case study was published, Equitybee has facilitated this model for employees at over 870 pre-IPO companies.
No. Equitybee uses a non-recourse funding structure, meaning the employee's repayment obligation is tied to a liquidity event that results in the shares becoming liquid - such as an IPO, acquisition, tender offer, or secondary sale. If no such event occurs, the employee does not owe anything. The financial risk of the exercise is borne by the investor, not the employee.
Equitybee can help employees who are still employed as well as those who have left and are within their post-termination exercise window. Many employees face a 90-day deadline to exercise options after leaving a company, and the cost of exercising - often tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars - makes Equitybee's non-recourse model especially valuable in these situations.
As of the date this case study was published, Equitybee's average funding timeline is approximately 14 days from application to capital delivery. In fast-track situations, funding can be completed in as few as 2-3 days. The process is designed to meet time-sensitive deadlines, such as post-termination exercise windows or pending liquidity events.
SourcesGoogle completes $32B acquisition of Wiz - TechCrunch
In biggest exit in Israeli history - Times of Israel
Employee equity statistics - Carta
Fundraising round data - Pitchbook, Inc.