what is bending spoons? everything to know about eventbrite’s acquirer

Bending Spoons Acquires Eventbrite for $500 Million

Bending Spoons, a technology group headquartered in Milan, has completed the acquisition of Eventbrite for a sum of $500 million. This addition expands the company’s collection of well-known consumer technology brands.

Deal Announcement and Company Overview

The acquisition was publicly revealed on Tuesday. It represents the newest venture for the 12-year-old firm, which has become a significant acquirer within the technology sector, despite maintaining a relatively low public profile.

Understanding Bending Spoons

Despite its memorable name, Bending Spoons has largely operated discreetly. The company generally gains attention when it incorporates another established brand into its holdings.

Currently, its portfolio encompasses brands such as Evernote, WeTransfer, Meetup, and StreamYard.

A Unique Acquisition Strategy

Bending Spoons differentiates itself from conventional private equity firms or purely financial investment entities. The company’s core strategy centers on acquiring technology brands that, while popular, are not performing to their full potential.

Their approach involves transforming these brands to enhance service delivery to a wider user base.

Restructuring and Product Changes

The company frequently generates discussion when it restructures its acquired businesses. This often includes workforce reductions or implementing substantial changes to established products.

Notable examples of this approach include the modifications made to both Evernote and WeTransfer.

Significant User Reach

Despite its relative obscurity, Bending Spoons’ products have collectively reached over a billion individuals. The company boasts more than 300 million monthly active users and a substantial base of 10 million paying customers.

Here's a summary of key information regarding the company that is actively reshaping prominent brands on the internet.

Key Takeaways

• Bending Spoons is a Milan-based tech conglomerate.
• The company focuses on acquiring and revitalizing underperforming tech brands.
• Its portfolio includes Eventbrite, Evernote, WeTransfer, Meetup, and StreamYard.
• Bending Spoons serves over a billion users globally.

Understanding Bending Spoons

Bending Spoons positions itself as a firm specializing in the acquisition and subsequent revitalization of existing digital businesses. Currently employing between 400 and 500 individuals, referred to internally as “Spooners,” the company concentrates on enhancing established products and services.

This approach, however, wasn’t the initial plan; the founders of Bending Spoons first attempted to develop their own applications and products before pivoting to their current strategy.

The company’s origins are somewhat obscure, stemming from the remnants of Evertale, a Copenhagen-based startup. Evertale showcased its photo-sharing application, Wink, at Startup Alley during Disrupt SF 2011 and successfully secured seed funding.

Despite initial investment, Evertale ultimately did not succeed, allowing investors to divest. However, the founding team and a small group of employees continued to collaborate, initially focusing on internal projects. Subsequently, the team completed its first acquisition, initiating a series of further purchases, as detailed in a conversation with CEO and co-founder Luca Ferrari on the 20VC venture podcast.

In 2020, Bending Spoons deviated from its typical model by developing and donating Immuni, the official COVID-19 contact-tracing application for Italy. Aside from this instance, the company generally follows a consistent pattern: identifying promising products with potential for improvement and acquiring them from owners who have reached a plateau.

Following an acquisition, Bending Spoons adopts a highly active ownership role. Significant modifications are implemented across various aspects of the product, including user experience, features, and the underlying technology.

Furthermore, changes extend to the monetization strategy, encompassing pricing models, and internal team structure, including staffing levels. While these practices share similarities with private equity, Bending Spoons emphasizes a crucial distinction: it “intends to maintain ownership indefinitely and has never divested an acquired business.” The company is focused on cultivating a dynamic portfolio, rather than simply accumulating obsolete digital assets.

It’s important to note that Bending Spoons’ acquisition targets haven’t always been businesses in distress—many possessed considerable user bases and generated substantial revenue. However, these companies often exhibited stagnation, neglect, or had owners seeking an exit strategy. Let's now review these significant transactions and their subsequent outcomes.

Bending Spoons: A Review of its Acquisitions

Between 2014 and 2021, Bending Spoons completed a number of company acquisitions. Among these was Remini, an application utilizing artificial intelligence for photo enhancement.

However, the most significant acquisitions undertaken by the company occurred in more recent times.

Key Acquisitions in 2022

During 2022, Bending Spoons acquired Filmic, the developer of widely-used video and photo editing applications. Subsequently, in December 2023, the entire Filmic staff was unfortunately laid off.

Also announced in 2022 and finalized in early 2023, the acquisition of Evernote, a note-taking application previously valued at $1 billion, was completed.

Following this acquisition, reductions in personnel occurred at Evernote, alongside adjustments to its complimentary service offerings.

Expansion Throughout 2024

The first half of 2024 proved to be a period of substantial growth for Bending Spoons, marked by several key acquisitions.

These included Meetup, a platform for organizing groups and events, Mosaic Group, an application development company, and StreamYard from Hopin.

In July 2024, the company further expanded its portfolio with the acquisition of Issuu, a publishing platform, and WeTransfer, a file transfer service.

Following these acquisitions, staff reductions were implemented at WeTransfer, and limitations were introduced to its free service tier.

Later in the year, Bending Spoons committed $233 million to an all-cash deal to acquire Brightcove, a video platform.

Continued Growth into 2025 and Beyond

The pace of acquisitions continued into 2025, with the addition of Komoot, a route planning application, and Harvest, a provider of management software.

Bending Spoons also announced its intent to acquire Vimeo for $1.38 billion in an all-cash transaction.

Shortly after, an agreement was reached to acquire AOL from Yahoo for an undisclosed sum. (It should be noted that both AOL and Yahoo were previous owners of TechCrunch, with Yahoo maintaining a minor stake.)

The acquisitions of both AOL and Vimeo are projected to be finalized by year-end, contingent upon standard closing conditions and regulatory approvals.

Stockholder approval is also required for the Vimeo acquisition.

Recent Acquisition of Eventbrite

Most recently, Bending Spoons acquired Eventbrite, another well-known brand.

The purchase price of approximately $500 million represents a significant decrease from Eventbrite’s previous valuation of $1.76 billion at the time of its initial public offering in 2018.

Determining the Valuation of Bending Spoons

As of October 2025, Bending Spoons has achieved the status of a European tech decacorn, a distinction reserved for companies exceeding a $10 billion valuation.

This significant milestone follows a recent funding round where Bending Spoons secured $270 million in investment. Investors participating included T. Rowe Price, alongside existing stakeholders such as Baillie Gifford, Cox Enterprises, Durable Capital Partners, and Fidelity.

A secondary share sale by current shareholders further contributed $440 million to the company’s capital.

The company’s previous valuation, established in 2024 at $2.8 billion, represents a substantial increase to the current $11 billion figure. This growth has also propelled the four co-founders into billionaire status.

Shareholder Value

Current estimates, based on data from the Italian Business Register and reported by Forbes, indicate that Ferrari’s investment in Bending Spoons is now valued at $1.4 billion.

Furthermore, co-founders Matteo Danieli, Luca Querella, and Francesco Patarnello each possess stakes estimated to be worth $1.3 billion.

Whether any of the co-founders participated in the secondary stock transaction remains unknown, as Bending Spoons has not released information regarding their individual holdings.

Funding History and Notable Investors

While initially self-funded for a considerable period, Bending Spoons has previously sought equity financing on several occasions, including rounds in September 2022 and early 2024.

The company’s investor roster includes prominent figures from various fields.

• These include sports and entertainment personalities like Andre Agassi and Bradley Cooper.
• Tech industry leaders such as Eric Schmidt, Mike Krieger, and Xavier Niel are also investors.
• Musical artists The Weeknd, The Chainsmokers, and Maluma also feature on the cap table.

Future Plans and Acquisitions

Bending Spoons announced that the newly acquired funding will be allocated towards supporting future acquisitions and enhancing its internal technology, particularly in the realm of artificial intelligence.

In addition to this, the company has secured $2.8 billion in debt financing, which will be used to finalize the acquisition of AOL and to fund subsequent acquisitions.

Future Plans for Bending Spoons

Bending Spoons has communicated its intention to actively seek further acquisitions. These acquisitions will focus on expanding its existing range of both consumer-facing and enterprise-level digital products.

The recent funding secured allows the company to pursue larger and more significant acquisition targets, as evidenced by the Eventbrite purchase.

Expanding Brand Recognition

Both AOL and Vimeo possess considerably greater brand awareness compared to Bending Spoons’ previous acquisition interests.

The financial details of the AOL acquisition have not been publicly released.

However, these properties offer substantial user reach. Bending Spoons reported that AOL continues to be a leading email provider globally.

AOL User Statistics

AOL maintains a position among the top 10 most utilized email services worldwide.

The platform currently boasts 8 million daily active users and 30 million monthly active users.

Prior to the AOL acquisition, Bending Spoons was also reportedly considering acquiring Elysium, an application development company, and Typeform, a Barcelona-based SaaS provider specializing in form-building tools.

Growth and Recruitment

To facilitate its ongoing acquisition strategy, Bending Spoons is actively recruiting for various positions.

New employees will initially be based at the company’s Milan headquarters.

Subsequently, they will have the opportunity to relocate to offices in London, Madrid, or Warsaw, or to work remotely.

Attracting Talent

Bending Spoons acknowledges that it offers a “demanding environment” for its employees.

Despite this, the company has already received over 600,000 job applications in 2025.

This number is expected to increase as the recent acquisitions attract further attention and interest.

This article was first published in October 2025 and is regularly updated with the latest information.