What is Bending Spoons? The little-known AOL and Vimeo owner that’s now public

Bending Spoons, the Milan-based tech conglomerate that made headlines for acquiring the likes of AOL and Vimeo, went nationalist connected the Nasdaq this week with a pop, concisely reaching a marketplace capitalization implicit $25 billion.

While Bending Spoons banal has somewhat slumped since then, its marketplace headdress remains doubly treble its erstwhile backstage valuation of $11 billion, confirming capitalist appetite for its playbook and portfolio, which includes integer brands specified arsenic Meetup, Eventbrite, and WeTransfer.

Bending Spoons’ strategy shares similarities with backstage equity, with the quality that it holds onto the brands it acquires. Its absorption is connected making them much financially palmy — with tech and AI, but besides often done terms hikes and layoffs that person caused controversy.

Speaking to TechCrunch, co-founder and main merchandise serviceman Matteo Danieli said immoderate of the scrutiny was owed to the information that products specified arsenic Evernote were genuinely loved by their users. But helium said that contempt each the changes, lawsuit retention has been “remarkably stable.”

The idiosyncratic basal of Bending Spoons itself has grown importantly successful its 13 years of existence, and peculiarly successful the past mates of years. As of March 2026, its portfolio served implicit 500 cardinal monthly progressive users and much than 9 cardinal monthly paying customers, according to its filing. 

This besides goes against the thought that Bending Spoons acquires dormant companies, a communicative that entrepreneur Joe Hyrkin has been battling since selling integer publishing level Issuu to the Italians successful 2024. 

“’Old net brands’ is the incorrect frame,” Hyrkin wrote connected LinkedIn aft the IPO. “They get products with existent lawsuit behavior, past integrate them into a centralized strategy of product, engineering, data, monetization, AI, and operating discipline.” This seems to beryllium working: Bending Spoons reported $1.31 cardinal gross successful 2025; but its marketplace capitalization indicates that investors expect adjacent more.

How did Bending Spoons start?

The little-known backstory is that Bending Spoons was calved retired of the remains of Evertale, a Copenhagen-based startup that participated successful Disrupt SF 2011’s Startup Alley and raised seed funding for itsphoto-sharing app, Wink.

Evertale failed not agelong after, and investors were capable to exit, but its founders and a mates of employees kept moving together, initially connected in-house apps. Soon enough, the squad made its archetypal acquisition, followed by galore others, CEO and co-founder Luca Ferrari told the task podcast 20VC in 1 of his uncommon interviews earlier the institution decided to spell public.

In 2020, Bending Spoons made an objection to its argumentation of nary longer gathering its ain products erstwhile it created and donated Immuni, Italy’s authoritative COVID-19 contact-tracing app. But different than that, it has mostly been honing a formula: identifying a fashionable merchandise it thinks it tin amended wrong and out, and buying it from owners who person reached their limits successful immoderate way.

This attack was agelong orthogonal to VC, and Bending Spoons remained bootstrapped for years. But it yet raised equity financing several times, including in 2022, 2024 and 2025. Pre-IPO, it besides had VIP backers similar tech manufacture bigs Eric Schmidt, Mike Krieger, and Xavier Niel; and stars Andre Agassi, Bradley Cooper, Maluma, The Weeknd, and The Chainsmokers.

What happens aft a Bending Spoons acquisition?

After the acquisition, Bending Spoons is thing but a passive owner, making changes to the products’ idiosyncratic acquisition and features, arsenic good arsenic to the underlying tech; monetization strategy, including pricing; and squad organization, including headcount.

While this absorption connected ratio and gross overlaps with backstage equity strategies, Bending Spoons claims a cardinal difference: It “aims to clasp forever, and has ne'er sold an acquired business.” It is gathering a unrecorded portfolio, not presiding implicit a tech graveyard.

What companies has Bending Spoons acquired?

While Bending Spoons acquired respective companies betwixt 2014 and 2021, including the AI-powered photograph enhancer Remini, its astir notable acquisitions happened much recently.

In 2022, it acquired Filmic, known for its fashionable video- and photo-editing apps, and laid disconnected the full staff successful December 2023.

In a woody besides announced successful 2022 and finalized successful aboriginal 2023, Bending Spoons besides acquired Evernote, the note-taking app that had reportedly reached a $1 cardinal valuation earlier hitting trouble. Layoffs followed the acquisition, arsenic good arsenic cuts to Evernote’s escaped offering.

The archetypal fractional of the pursuing year, 2024, was peculiarly active, with the acquisition of Meetup, app shaper Mosaic Group, and Hopin’s StreamYard each happening wrong six months. 

In July 2024, it went connected to get the publishing platformIssuu and the record transportation serviceWeTransfer, wherever it aboriginal cut staff and made changes to its escaped plan, introducing stricter limits. In December 2025, WeTransfer’s cofounder Nalden criticized Bending Spoons’ decisions and said helium was building different record transportation service.

In November 2024, Bending Spoons announced it would walk $233 million connected an all-cash take-private woody to get video level Brightcove. The acquisitions continued apace successful aboriginal 2025, with route planner Komoot and absorption bundle shaper Harvest. 

Bending Spoons besides announced its volition to acquire Vimeo successful a $1.38 cardinal all-cash deal, and soon after, to acquire AOL from Yahoo for an undisclosed amount. (Disclosure: Both AOL and Yahoo are erstwhile owners of TechCrunch, and Yahoo retains a tiny interest.) 

In December 2025, Bending Spoons announced it would get yet different well-known brand: Eventbrite — and for lone immoderate $500 million, a acold outcry from the company’s $1.76 billion valuation erstwhile it went nationalist successful 2018.

The Vimeo woody closed successful the second fractional of 2025, and was followed by massive layoffs impacting astir of the workforce including the full video team. The acquisitions of AOL, Eventbrite and Tractive were besides completed this year. 

What’s adjacent for Bending Spoons?

Four of Bending Spoons’ cofounders person remained astatine its helm implicit the years: Matteo Danieli, Luca Ferrari, Francesco Patarnello, and Luca Querella. The IPO made them billionaires, astatine slightest connected paper, portion retaining power of the company, with much than 80% of the voting power.

Some of their decisions volition impact workers. According to the company, it added “1,830 full-time equivalent squad members done the acquisitions of AOL, Eventbrite, and Vimeo” but has already “parted ways” with many, and volition continue. “Once the transformations of the 3 businesses are substantially implicit aboriginal successful 2026, we expect lone a fewer 100 to remain.”

This headcount simplification presumably won’t impact the fig of “Spooners” — the word Bending Spoons reserves to immoderate halfway squad members that person gone done its highly selective hiring process. There are presently immoderate 620 of them, but that fig hasn’t grown fast: successful 2025, it lone made 286 hires retired of immoderate 800,000 occupation applications.

Core headcount whitethorn not person accrued by much, but productivity has. “In portion helped by advancement successful AI, gross per full-time equivalent Spooner accrued from $1.12 cardinal successful 2023 to $2.57 cardinal successful 2025, and was $0.97 cardinal successful Q1 2026,” the institution said. It helped it flight the SaaS reckoning it present besides hopes to payment from.

“As galore businesses conflict to adapt, our quality to grow the net of an acquired concern whitethorn improve,” Bending Spoons observed. In addition, “an situation of greater uncertainty could supply opportunities for america to get businesses astatine much favorable valuations.”

Despite what it sees arsenic a favorable moment, Bending Spoons has remained selective successful its acquisitions, but keeps connected a wide net. By its ain reporting, it sourced implicit 2,500 acquisition opportunities successful 2025, conducted in-depth analyses of astir 200 of them, and completed six acquisitions. More volition surely travel — that’s the playbook.

“We’ve identified much than 1,000 integer businesses (both backstage and public) that could beryllium charismatic acquisition targets successful the future, representing astir $400 cardinal successful aggregate estimated gross successful 2025,” Ferrari wrote successful a missive connected behalf of the Bending Spoons team.

The playbook hasn’t changed, but the hint astatine take-privates is simply a reminder that the institution has gone from paying “$10,000 for our archetypal acquisition” to present “pursuing acquisitions successful the billions of dollars.” 

What follows whitethorn beryllium adjacent much intense. “As AI enables america to execute much with less people, the scalability of our acquisition and translation exemplary should amended arsenic well,” Ferrari predicted.

This communicative was primitively published successful October 2025 and is updated periodically with caller information.