An Italian tech firm simply pulled off some of the placing inventory market debuts of 2026. Bending Spoons, the Milan-headquartered app large, accomplished its Bending Spoons IPO on Nasdaq with shares priced at $29 every — above the beforehand introduced $26–$28 vary — and walked away with a valuation of roughly $18.4 billion. That determine alone tells a narrative: it’s a dramatic bounce from the $11 billion valuation connected to the corporate’s final non-public financing spherical in 2025.
Key takeaways
- Bending Spoons priced its Nasdaq IPO at $29 per share, above the preliminary $26–$28 vary, elevating $1.68 billion from the sale of 57,971,015 atypical shares.
- The corporate’s IPO valuation reached roughly $18.4 billion, up sharply from its $11 billion non-public valuation in 2025.
- Bending Spoons closed 2025 with $2.6 billion in revenues and a $500 million revenue, underscoring the size of its acquisition-driven mannequin.
- The group’s app portfolio serves greater than 400 million month-to-month energetic customers and 10 million paying clients throughout platforms together with Vimeo, WeTransfer, and Evernote.
- The corporate was based in 2013 by 5 entrepreneurs underneath 30, together with Luca Ferrari and Francesco Patarnello, and is now backed by Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Baillie Gifford, and former Apple CFO Luca Maestri.
Bending Spoons Debuts on Nasdaq with a Headline-Making Valuation
The numbers behind this itemizing are exhausting to disregard. The providing raised $1.68 billion by means of the sale of 57,971,015 atypical shares — of which 34,398,640 got here straight from Bending Spoons itself and 23,572,375 from present promoting shareholders. The closing was scheduled for July 2, 2026.
Pricing above the preliminary vary is a significant sign. It signifies that institutional demand was sturdy sufficient to push underwriters previous their conservative opening estimate — a vote of confidence that the $18.4 billion valuation wasn’t simply acceptable to the market, however actively sought.
A Wall Road Lineup Behind the Deal
Goldman Sachs Worldwide, JPMorgan, and Allen & Firm LLC served as joint lead book-running managers. The broader syndicate included Wells Fargo Securities, Financial institution of America Securities, Jefferies, Evercore ISI, BNP Paribas, Mizuho, Societe Generale, Crédit Agricole CIB, Intesa Sanpaolo, UniCredit, and Banca Akros – Banco BPM Group. The Italian banking presence within the syndicate — Intesa Sanpaolo, UniCredit, and Banca Akros — displays the corporate’s roots and the home satisfaction connected to this itemizing.
Based on Reuters, Bending Spoons was anticipated to open roughly 14% above its IPO worth in Nasdaq debut buying and selling, including additional weight to the already elevated valuation set at pricing.
From Copenhagen to Milan: The Founders Behind the Firm
Bending Spoons was based in 2013 in Copenhagen by 5 entrepreneurs, all underneath 30 on the time. Luca Ferrari, initially from Settimo di Pescina within the Veronese countryside, and Francesco Patarnello from Padua are among the many most publicly related names. The founding crew additionally included Matteo Danieli from Vicenza, Luca Querella from Turin, and Tomasz Greber, the only real non-Italian member of the group, who’s Polish.
The corporate finally relocated its headquarters to Milan, the place it operates in the present day. The story of 5 younger founders constructing an $18.4 billion public firm in simply over a decade is, by any commonplace, an distinctive one — and it raises apparent questions on what made the mannequin work so reliably.
The Acquisition Engine: How Bending Spoons Really Operates
The core of Bending Spoons’ technique is simple to explain however tough to execute: purchase know-how firms, restructure them for increased profitability, and redeploy the ensuing money flows into new acquisitions. It’s a compounding flywheel that the corporate has now run by means of greater than 50 offers.
The portfolio reads like a listing of once-iconic web manufacturers. Acquisitions embody AOL, Vimeo, Brightcove, WeTransfer, Evernote, Koomoot, and Eventbrite. Many of those have been platforms that had misplaced momentum or struggled with profitability underneath prior possession. Bending Spoons’ playbook includes taking them in, making use of operational self-discipline, and extracting margin that earlier administration groups couldn’t.
What the Numbers Say In regards to the Mannequin
The monetary outcomes validate the thesis — no less than by means of the proof out there. The group’s apps collectively serve greater than 400 million month-to-month energetic customers and generate income from 10 million paying clients. In 2025, Bending Spoons closed the yr with $2.6 billion in revenues and a $500 million revenue. A 19% web margin at that scale, constructed largely on acquired and restructured belongings, just isn’t a trivial end result.
That profitability profile additionally units Bending Spoons other than many tech firms that arrived on public markets in prior years nonetheless burning money. Traders listed here are shopping for into an already worthwhile enterprise — one which generated half a billion {dollars} in web earnings earlier than its first day of buying and selling.
Key Traders and Market Place
Over time, Bending Spoons raised roughly $5 billion from a spread of institutional and particular person backers. Baillie Gifford, the Scottish funding supervisor identified for its long-term holdings in firms like Tesla, was among the many key institutional buyers. The roster additionally contains Tamburi, former Apple CFO Luca Maestri, and former tennis champion Andre Agassi.
The breadth of the investor base — spanning institutional asset managers, strategic Italian buyers, and high-profile people — suggests the corporate constructed credibility throughout a number of networks earlier than arriving on Nasdaq. That form of backing doesn’t assure future efficiency, however it does replicate how significantly subtle capital handled Bending Spoons’ monitor report heading into the general public itemizing.
The valuation leap from $11 billion to $18.4 billion between the final non-public spherical and the IPO pricing can also be price inspecting analytically. It implies that public market buyers, after reviewing the SEC filings and the roadshow, assigned a considerably increased a number of to the enterprise than non-public buyers had simply months earlier. Whether or not that premium is sustained will rely on the corporate’s capacity to proceed sourcing, integrating, and monetizing acquisitions at tempo — a mannequin that turns into more durable to execute because the out there deal universe narrows and the corporate’s dimension calls for ever-larger transactions to maneuver the needle.
FAQ
What was the IPO share worth for Bending Spoons on Nasdaq?
The IPO share worth was set at $29 per share, above the preliminary $26–$28 vary, reflecting sturdy institutional demand in the course of the bookbuilding course of.
How a lot cash did Bending Spoons increase from the IPO?
Bending Spoons raised $1.68 billion from the sale of almost 58 million atypical shares, break up between new shares issued by the corporate and shares bought by present shareholders.
What’s Bending Spoons’ estimated valuation after the IPO?
Primarily based on the variety of shares excellent disclosed in SEC paperwork, the corporate was valued at roughly $18.4 billion on the time of the IPO — effectively above its $11 billion non-public valuation from 2025.
Who based Bending Spoons and when?
Bending Spoons was based in 2013 in Copenhagen by 5 entrepreneurs underneath 30: Luca Ferrari, Francesco Patarnello, Matteo Danieli, Luca Querella, and Tomasz Greber. The corporate is now headquartered in Milan, Italy.
Article produced with the help of synthetic intelligence and reviewed by the editorial crew.