Bending Spoons' Nasdaq IPO: public money to keep buying and fixing apps

A Milan-based technology company that buys digital businesses — Evernote, Remini, WeTransfer, Vimeo, Eventbrite and AOL among more than 50 acquisitions — then restructures them, often cutting teams and moving users onto subscriptions, and says it has never sold a material business.

That public markets would fund a debt-backed roll-up: raise about $954M for the company at IPO and keep buying, restructuring hard, and never selling the apps it owns.

The July 2026 IPO priced about 58 million shares at $29, raising roughly $1.68B including selling shareholders, of which approximately $954M in gross proceeds went to Bending Spoons itself.

Founded in Milan in 2013 by Luca Ferrari and co-founders with the $40,000 left after their failed diary app Evertale was liquidated, Bending Spoons built a playbook of acquiring underperforming apps and transforming them. By 2025 its portfolio included Evernote, Remini, WeTransfer, Vimeo, Brightcove, Eventbrite, StreamYard and AOL.

After a decade of private acquisitions — an October 2025 round led by T. Rowe Price accounts valued the company near $11B — Bending Spoons went public. Its offering of about 58 million shares priced at $29, above the marketed $26–28 range, and trading began on the Nasdaq Global Select Market on 1 July 2026 under the ticker BSP, with Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan and Allen & Company leading the syndicate.

Public and still buying: shares opened at $31 and closed the first session at $40.50, up about 40%, for a market value of roughly $25B. As of September 2026 the stock traded near $40 with a market capitalisation of about $23.8B.

The model had produced numbers public investors could price: 2025 revenue of $1.31B, up 95% year over year, and Q1 2026 revenue up 132% to $601M with a swing to net profit.

Proceeds were for growth, not survival: the company said it would use the IPO money for general corporate purposes and new acquisitions rather than paying down its $4B+ borrowings.

Bending Spoons claims it has never sold a material business, which turns a roll-up into a compounder — a promise private-equity buyers, who exit, cannot make to their investors.

Pricing above range showed scarcity value: 2026 had seen few software IPOs, and an oversubscribed book let Bending Spoons set $29 against the $26–28 range and still pop 40% on day one.

A private roll-up can go public without changing its playbook: Bending Spoons raised $954M to buy more, not to pay down debt, and investors paid up 40% on day one.

As of September 2026 Bending Spoons trades near $40 with a market capitalisation of about $23.8B and trailing revenue near $2.04B. The debut funded the model: proceeds were earmarked for new acquisitions, with 1,000+ digital businesses named as targets. The playbook drew criticism too — Vimeo, bought for $1.38B in November 2025, cut 1,000+ jobs in January 2026 — and Bending Spoons disclosed material weaknesses in its financial controls. Co-founders still hold over 82% of voting power: the public company remains a concentrated bet on one operating style.