This week, the four founders of Bending Spoons joined the ranks of billionaires.
CEO Luca Ferrari’s stake in Milan-based technology conglomerate The company is now reportedly valued at $1.4 billion, while founders Matteo Daniele, Luca Cirella and Francesco Patarnello each own stakes worth $1.3 billion, according to Forbes estimates based on shareholder statements published by the Italian business registry.
The valuations come on the heels of Bending Spoons’ latest funding round: $270 million from investors including T. Rowe Price and previous backers Baillie Gifford, Cox Enterprises, Durable Capital Partners and Fidelity, as well as a $440 million secondary equity sale by existing shareholders. It is unclear whether any of the founders sold shares in the secondary transaction. Bending Spoons declined to comment on its founders’ stakes.
Despite its catchy name, Bending Spoons has remained remarkably under the radar. The 12-year-old group usually only makes headlines when it adds another well-known brand to its growing portfolio – most recently last week. When it agreed to acquire AOL. For an undisclosed sum.
But Bending Spoons is not a traditional private equity firm or pure financial investment vehicle. Its focus is on acquiring underperforming but popular tech brands and then transforming them to serve millions of users more efficiently.
The company tends to make news when it restructures these acquired companies, often through… Massive layoffsor makes Controversial changes For favorite products – or both in the case of Evernote and WeTransfer.
However, Bending Spoons itself remains largely unknown, even though its product roster has served more than a billion people, with more than 300 million monthly active users and 10 million paying customers. Here’s what you need to know about the company’s reshaping of some of the Internet’s most iconic brands.
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What is spoon bending?
Bending Spoons describes itself as a company that acquires and transforms digital businesses. Having grown from 400 to 500 “Spooners”, its main focus has become making improvements to products and services created by others.
However, it didn’t start out that way – the Bending Spoons founders tried creating their own apps and products before eventually changing their focus.
The little-known backstory is that Bending Spoons was born from the remains of Evertale, a Copenhagen-based startup Participate in Disrupt SF 2011’s Startup Alley And it was raised Seed financing she has Photo sharing appwink.
Evertale failed soon after, and investors exited, but its founders and two employees continued to work together, initially on internal applications. Soon after, the team made its first acquisition, followed by several others, CEO and co-founder Luca Ferrari told the 20VC podcast. In a rare interview
In 2020, Bending Spoons made an exception when it created and donated Immuni, the official Italian coronavirus (COVID-19) contact tracing app. But other than that, it was mostly refining a formula: Bending Spoons identifies a popular product that it thinks can be improved inside and out, and buys it from owners who have reached their limits.
Following the acquisition, Bending Spoons is only a passive owner, making changes to the products’ user experience and features and also to the underlying technology; Monetization strategy, including pricing; and team organization, including number of employees.
While this focus on efficiency and revenue overlaps with private equity strategies, Bending Spoons claims a key difference: it “aims to hold in perpetuity, and has never sold an acquired company.” It’s building a living wallet, not amassing Internet traces or presiding over a technology graveyard.
To be clear, Bending Spoons’ acquisition targets to date haven’t necessarily been failed companies — many of them still have significant user bases and revenues. But they tended to stagnate, be neglected, or their owners were looking to move out. Let’s recap these key deals, as well as what happened in their aftermath.
What companies has Bending Spoons acquired?
While Bending Spoons acquired several companies between 2014 and 2021, including AI-powered photo enhancer Remini, its most notable acquisitions occurred more recently.
In 2022, it acquired Filmic, known for its popular video and photo editing applications, and Complete layoff of employees In December 2023.
In a deal also announced in 2022 and completed in early 2023, Bending Spoons also acquired Evernote, a note-taking app that reportedly reached a $1 billion valuation before running into trouble. Layoffs Takeover followedbesides Discounts on free Evernote offers.
The first half of the following year, 2024, was particularly active, with Acquisition of MeetupApp maker Mosaic setand Hopin Streamyard In the first half of the year.
In July 2024, it acquired the publishing platform version File transfer service We transferwhere later Cutting staff and She made changes to her free planand introducing stricter limits. Later in the year, Bending Spoons announced it would spend $233 million In a private, all-cash deal to acquire video platform Brightcove.
Acquisitions continued apace in 2025, with acquisitions including Komoot outdoor route planner Management software maker crop.
Bending Spoons has also announced its intention to do so Get Vimeo in a $1.38 billion cash deal and, most recently, to acquire AOL from Yahoo. (Disclosure: Both AOL and Yahoo are former owners of TechCrunch, in which Yahoo retains a small stake.)
According to Bending Spoons, the AOL and Vimeo acquisitions are expected to close by the end of the year, subject to standard closing conditions and regulatory approvals, including, in Vimeo’s case, shareholder approval.
How much are bending spoons worth?
As of the end of October 2025, Bending Spoons is one of Europe’s rare technology companies (companies valued at more than $10 billion). The startup last raised a $2.8 billion valuation in 2024, making its latest round a big step forward.
Although Bending Spoons has been in business for a long time, it has previously raised equity financing Several timesincluded In September 2022 and Early 2024. It also has VIPs at its table, including tennis and entertainment stars Andre Agassi and Bradley Cooper; Tech industry giants Eric Schmidt, Mike Krieger, and Xavier Neal; and performers The Weeknd, The Chainsmokers and Maluma.
According to Bending Spoons, its new funding will support future acquisitions and investment in its technology and AI capabilities. This comes in addition to the $2.8 billion debt financing the company disclosed when it announced its intention to acquire AOL, debt that will fund the AOL deal and future acquisitions.
What’s next?
Bending Spoons says it intends to continue pursuing new acquisitions that expand its portfolio of consumer and enterprise digital products, and now has the funding to provide clearer goals moving forward.
AOL and Vimeo already have much greater name recognition than previous targets, even if terms of the deal remain undisclosed. Properties also have some access. In announcing the AOL deal, Bending Spoons claimed that AOL remains one of the top 10 most widely used email service providers in the world, with 8 million daily active users and 30 million monthly active users. (It wasn’t long before the AOL acquisition that Bending Spoons was.) Rumor To look forward App maker Elysium and Writing forma Barcelona-based SaaS company known for its form building tools.)
Meant to support its ongoing corporate acquisition efforts, it also has job openings in various roles, with new hires initially working from its headquarters in Milan before having the option to work from offices in London, Madrid, Warsaw, or remotely.
In fact, despite warning candidates that Bending Spoons is a “demanding environment,” the company said it has already received more than 600,000 job applications in 2025, a number that is likely to rise as its recent deals generate additional interest.