What is Bending Spoons? Everything to know about Eventbrite’s acquirer

Milan-based tech conglomerate Bending Spoons has added yet another major consumer brand to its rapidly growing portfolio, acquiring Eventbrite for $500 million this week.

Announced on Tuesday, the purchase marks the latest move by the 12-year-old company, which has quietly become one of the most active acquirers in the global tech industry — despite remaining unknown primarily to everyday consumers.

Who exactly is Bending Spoons?

Despite its memorable name, Bending Spoons operates primarily out of the spotlight. It typically becomes visible only when it snaps up another well-known tech brand — a list that already includes Evernote, WeTransfer, Meetup, Remini, Komoot, Harvest, StreamYard, and several others.

Yet Bending Spoons is not a traditional private equity firm.
Its playbook: acquire popular but under-optimised digital products, overhaul them, and turn them into stronger, more efficient businesses.

That approach often involves restructuring teams, reducing headcount, and changing product plans, which has brought criticism from users — especially following controversial updates to Evernote and WeTransfer.

Even so, Bending Spoons now oversees a portfolio of products used by over 1 billion people, with 300 million+ monthly active users and around 10 million paying subscribers.

How did Bending Spoons start?

The company traces its origins back to Evertale, a Danish startup that once pitched at TechCrunch Disrupt 2011 and developed a photo-sharing app called Wink.

Evertale eventually folded, but its founders — including current CEO Luca Ferrari — continued building products together.
After experimenting with apps, the group made its first acquisition… and then many more, refining a model that now defines the company.

In 2020, Bending Spoons briefly shifted from acquisitions to build Immuni, Italy’s government-backed COVID-19 contact-tracing app, which it developed and donated.

But since then, the company has returned to its core strategy — identifying promising digital services that have plateaued and transforming them.

What has Bending Spoons acquired?

While it made several early acquisitions between 2014 and 2021 (including the photo enhancer Remini), its biggest deals have come in recent years.

Key acquisitions include:

2022

• Filmic (video/photo editing apps) — later laid off the entire staff in 2023
• Evernote — followed by major restructuring and free-tier cuts

2024

• Meetup
• Mosaic Group
• StreamYard
• Issuu
• WeTransfer — followed by staff reductions and stricter free-plan limits
• Brightcove — taken private in a $233M all-cash deal

2025

• Komoot (route planning)
• Harvest (business management software)
• Announced plans to buy Vimeo for $1.38 billion in cash
• Announced acquisition of AOL from Yahoo (terms undisclosed)
• And now, Eventbrite for $500M
  — far below its $1.76B IPO valuation in 2018

Bending Spoons says both the Vimeo and AOL acquisitions should close by the end of the year, pending regulatory and shareholder approvals.

How much is Bending Spoons worth?

As of October 2025, the company became one of Europe’s few decacorns, valued at over $10 billion.

Its most recent financing includes:

• $270 million new investment from T. Rowe Price, Baillie Gifford, Cox Enterprises, Durable Capital, and Fidelity
• $440 million in secondary share purchases from existing shareholders
• A previous valuation of $2.8B (2024), making the jump to $11B especially notable

This valuation also pushed all four co-founders — Luca Ferrari, Matteo Danieli, Luca Querella, and Francesco Patarnello — into billionaire status, with stakes estimated between $1.3B and $1.4B each (per Forbes).

The company has also raised several equity rounds since 2022 and has celebrity investors such as:

• Andre Agassi
• Bradley Cooper
• Maluma
• The Chainsmokers
• The Weeknd
• Tech leaders like Eric Schmidt, Mike Krieger, and Xavier Niel

Additionally, Bending Spoons disclosed $2.8 billion in debt financing to support the upcoming AOL acquisition and future deals.

What’s next for Bending Spoons?

The company has made it clear that it intends to keep buying — and now has the war chest to pursue even bigger targets.

• AOL remains one of the world’s top 10 email providers
  (8M daily and 30M monthly active users)
• Vimeo would be Bending Spoons’ largest platform purchase so far
• Rumours suggest interest in Typeform, Elysium, and other major software brands

The company is also expanding its hiring.
Candidates are initially required to work from its Milan HQ, with options to later relocate or work remotely from offices in Madrid, London, or Warsaw.

Despite describing itself as a “demanding environment,” Bending Spoons says it received over 600,000 job applications in 2025, a number expected to rise as its acquisitions draw more attention.