This week, the 4 co-founders of Bending Spoons joined the ranks of billionaires.
CEO Luca Ferrari’s stake within the Milan-based expertise conglomerate is now reportedly value $1.4 billion, whereas co-founders Matteo Danieli, Luca Querella and Francesco Patarnello every maintain shares value $1.3 billion, based on Forbes estimates primarily based on shareholder information revealed by the Italian Enterprise Register.
The valuation follows Bending Spoons’ newest funding spherical, which noticed $270 million from buyers together with T. Rowe Value and former backers Baillie Gifford, Cox Enterprises, Sturdy Capital Companions and Constancy, plus $440 million in secondary stake gross sales from current shareholders. It’s unclear whether or not any of the co-founders offered their shares in secondary transactions. Merchandising Spoons declined to touch upon the co-founder’s funding quantity.
Regardless of its catchy identify, Bending Spoons did not deserve a lot consideration. The 12-year-old firm sometimes makes headlines solely when it provides one other big-name model to its rising portfolio, most not too long ago final week when it agreed to purchase AOL. The quantity is just not disclosed.
However Bending Spoons is neither a conventional non-public fairness agency nor a pure monetary funding car. Its focus is on buying underperforming however in style tech manufacturers and remodeling them to serve thousands and thousands of customers extra effectively.
Firms are likely to make headlines once they restructure the businesses they purchase, typically by making vital job cuts, making controversial adjustments to beloved merchandise, or, within the case of Evernote and WeTransfer, each.
Bending Spoons itself stays largely unknown, although its product line serves greater than 1 billion individuals, has greater than 300 million month-to-month energetic customers, and greater than 10 million paying clients. This is what you should find out about this firm that is reinventing a number of the web’s most well-known manufacturers.
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What’s a bendable spoon?
Bending Spoons describes itself as an organization that acquires and transforms digital companies. The corporate, which has grown to 400-500 “Spooners” workers, is primarily centered on bettering services and products created by others.
But it surely did not begin like that. Bending Spoons’ founders tried their hand at constructing their very own apps and merchandise earlier than finally shifting their focus.
Slightly-known backstory is that Bending Spoons was born from the ashes of Evertale, a Copenhagen-based startup that participated in Disrupt SF 2011’s Startup Alley and raised seed funding for photo-sharing app Wink.
Evertale failed quickly after and buyers have been absolved, however the founders and some workers continued to collaborate, initially on an inner app. Quickly the crew made its first acquisition, after which many others, CEO and co-founder Luca Ferrari advised the 20VC podcast in a uncommon interview.
In 2020, Bending Spoons made an exception when it created and donated Italy’s official COVID-19 contact tracing app, Immuni. However aside from that, the corporate has primarily honed its formulation. Bending Spoons identifies in style merchandise that may be improved in and out and purchases them from homeowners who’ve reached their limits.
For the reason that acquisition, Bending Spoons has by no means been a passive proprietor, making adjustments not solely to the person expertise and performance of the product, but additionally to the underlying expertise. Monetization methods, together with pricing. Workforce group, together with variety of workers.
Whereas the deal with effectivity and profitability overlaps with non-public fairness methods, Bending Spoons argues there are necessary variations. Because of this “we intention to carry the corporate endlessly and have by no means offered the acquired companies.” Reasonably than gathering web relics or curating a tech graveyard, you are constructing a dwelling portfolio.
To be clear, Bending Spoons’ earlier acquisition targets weren’t essentially failed companies, a lot of which nonetheless had vital person bases and income. However they tended to be stagnant, ignored, or have homeowners trying to exit. Let’s summarize these necessary trades and what occurred after.
What firms has Bending Spoons acquired?
Bending Spoons acquired a number of firms between 2014 and 2021, together with AI photograph enhancement service Remini, however its most notable acquisition got here not too long ago.
In 2022, it acquired Filmic, a preferred video and photograph enhancing app, and laid off all workers in December 2023.
Additionally in a deal introduced in 2022 and accomplished in early 2023, Merchandising Spoons additionally acquired notes app Evernote, which was reportedly valued at $1 billion earlier than it bumped into bother. The acquisition was adopted by layoffs and cuts to Evernote’s free providing.
The primary half of the next yr, 2024, was significantly energetic, with the acquisitions of Meetup, app maker Mosaic Group, and Hopin’s StreamYard within the first half of the yr.
In July 2024, it acquired publishing platform Issuu and file switch service WeTransfer, then reduce workers, modified its free plan, and launched stricter restrictions. Later that yr, Bending Spoons introduced it will spend $233 million in an all-cash take-private deal to accumulate video platform Brightcove.
Acquisitions continued quickly into 2025, with the acquisition of out of doors route planner Komoot and administration software program maker Harvest.
Bending Spoons additionally introduced its intention to accumulate Vimeo in an all-cash deal for $1.38 billion, and extra not too long ago introduced its intention to accumulate AOL from Yahoo. (Disclosure: AOL and Yahoo are each former homeowners of TechCrunch, with Yahoo retaining a small curiosity in it.)
In line with Bending Spoons, the acquisition of AOL and Vimeo is anticipated to shut by the top of the yr, topic to plain closing situations and regulatory approvals (together with shareholder approval within the case of Vimeo).
How a lot is Bending Spoon value?
As of the top of October 2025, Bending Spoons is one among Europe’s uncommon high-tech decacorns (firms with an enterprise worth of greater than $10 billion). The startup final raised cash in 2024 at a valuation of $2.8 billion, so this newest spherical is a big step up.
Merchandising Spoons has lengthy been bootstrapped, however has raised fairness funding a number of occasions up to now, together with in September 2022 and early 2024. Additionally on the cap desk are VIPs reminiscent of tennis and leisure stars Andre Agassi and Bradley Cooper. expertise business heavyweights Eric Schmidt, Mike Krieger, and Xavier Neal; and performers The Weeknd, The Chainsmokers, and Maluma.
Bending Spoons stated the brand new funding will help future acquisitions and investments in proprietary expertise and AI capabilities. This comes along with the $2.8 billion in debt financing the corporate disclosed when it introduced its intention to accumulate AOL, debt that can fund the AOL transaction and future acquisitions.
What’s subsequent?
Bending Spoons stated it intends to proceed pursuing new acquisitions to broaden its portfolio of shopper and enterprise digital merchandise and has secured funding to accumulate extra outstanding targets sooner or later.
AOL and Vimeo have already got a lot increased profile than their earlier targets, although the phrases of the deal stay non-public. Properties even have some vary. When asserting the partnership with AOL, Bending Spoons claimed that AOL stays among the many high 10 most used e mail suppliers on this planet, with 8 million every day energetic customers and 30 million month-to-month energetic customers. (Shortly earlier than buying AOL, Bending Spoons was additionally rumored to be eyeing app maker Elysium and Typeform, a Barcelona-based SaaS firm recognized for its type creation instruments.)
Maybe to help its continued acquisition efforts, the corporate is recruiting for quite a lot of roles, with new hires initially working at its headquarters in Milan after which having the choice of working from places of work in London, Madrid, Warsaw, or remotely.
Certainly, regardless of Bending Spoons warning candidates of a “robust surroundings”, the corporate says it has already obtained greater than 600,000 job functions for 2025, and this quantity is more likely to rise additional as current offers appeal to additional consideration.
