Bending Spoons to Buy Miro for $1.36B, Far Below Its $17.5B Peak

Bending Spoons has agreed to acquire workplace collaboration software maker Miro for $1.36 billion in cash, giving the once highly valued startup an exit at a fraction of the $17.5 billion valuation it reached during the technology boom of 2021.

The transaction gives Miro an equity value of about $1.79 billion, including roughly $435 million in net cash. The company remains profitable and generates about $600 million in annual recurring revenue, according to figures disclosed by Bending Spoons.

The acquisition marks another major software purchase for the Italian technology company, which has increasingly targeted established businesses that attracted enormous valuations during the pandemic-era software boom but are now valued far more conservatively.

Miro grew rapidly during the remote-work boom

Miro was founded in 2011 as RealtimeBoard and initially focused on digital whiteboarding. Its growth accelerated during the COVID-19 pandemic as companies shifted to remote work and sought online tools that could recreate collaborative office activities.

Between 2020 and 2022, Miro’s user base grew from about 5 million to roughly 30 million, while its paying customer base expanded by 550%. That momentum helped the company secure a $17.5 billion valuation in late 2021.

Miro later expanded well beyond digital whiteboards. Its platform now integrates with more than 250 applications and includes AI assistants, workflows, prototyping tools, and connectors that can pull information from services including GitHub, Jira, and Slack.

Today, Miro says it has more than 100 million users and over 4 million paying customers. About 90% of its annual recurring revenue comes from businesses and enterprise customers.

SaaS valuations have fallen sharply from 2021 peaks

Miro’s sale highlights the dramatic reset in software valuations since the pandemic-era market. Enterprise application companies that once commanded aggressive revenue multiples have faced a more difficult funding and exit environment as customers reduced spending and investors placed greater emphasis on profitability and sustainable growth.

Signs of recovery have begun to appear across the enterprise software sector after a prolonged downturn, but valuations remain far below the levels reached during the 2021 investment boom.

Miro also faced increased pressure as businesses consolidated software subscriptions and favoured broader product suites over standalone collaboration tools. The company competes with heavily funded technology companies including Canva, Figma and Microsoft.

The slowdown led Miro to reduce its workforce. The company laid off 119 employees in February 2023, and another round of reported job cuts followed in 2024.

Bending Spoons continues buying discounted software companies

Miro is the latest recognisable software business Bending Spoons acquired at a valuation well below its previous private-market peak. The company agreed to buy Airtable for $1.28 billion last month, after the workplace software startup was valued at more than $11 billion in 2021.

The strategy gives Bending Spoons access to mature software companies with established brands, large user bases and recurring revenue, even when their growth has slowed from the rates investors once expected.

Miro CEO Andrey Khusid addressed the transaction in a message announcing the agreement, as the company prepares to move from venture-backed independence into Bending Spoons’ portfolio.

Miro’s financial position makes the sale particularly notable. The company is profitable, has hundreds of millions of dollars in net cash and continues to generate substantial recurring revenue, meaning the transaction does not appear to be driven by an immediate need for financing.

The deal instead underscores how dramatically expectations for mature SaaS businesses have changed since 2021. Companies once valued on the assumption of years of rapid expansion are now being priced more closely around current growth, profitability and recurring revenue.