Bending Spoons, an Italian tech group founded in 2013, recently marked its public debut on Nasdaq, raising $1.68 billion and achieving an $18.4 billion valuation. The company's strategy involves acquiring struggling internet brands, such as AOL, Evernote, Vimeo, Eventbrite, and WeTransfer, and then revitalizing them through technological transformation, particularly leveraging AI. This approach has generated substantial revenue growth, with the company reporting $1.31 billion in revenue in 2025, up from $387 million two years prior. Its portfolio now reaches over 500 million monthly users and nine million paying subscribers as of March 2026.
Central to Bending Spoons' operational model is the heavy integration of artificial intelligence, which now accounts for about 90% of the company's code, a significant increase from less than a tenth a year prior. This AI-first strategy has reportedly enabled the company to achieve an impressive revenue per employee of $2.57 million in 2025, surpassing Apple's $2.4 million. The company's co-founder, Matteo Danieli, emphasized this AI-driven efficiency, stating that the pace of shipping new features and creating user value has accelerated dramatically.
While the company's rapid growth and $18 billion IPO valuation highlight its success, its methods have also drawn scrutiny. Bending Spoons employs a private equity-like playbook, acquiring distressed brands, often loading them with debt, and implementing significant cost-cutting measures, including layoffs. For instance, after acquiring Evernote for $200 million in 2023, the company raised its annual price from $100 to $249. Filings show reorganization costs of over $78 million in 2025, with only a few hundred of the 1,830 employees inherited from AOL, Eventbrite, and Vimeo expected to remain. The company has financed a $5 billion acquisition spree since 2023 largely through borrowing, accumulating about $6 billion in debt, which resulted in a net loss of $200,000 in 2025, despite $278 million in operating income.
