Bending Spoons, the 13-year-old Milan-based company known for acquiring and revitalizing aging tech brands, defied the broader SaaS slump by surging nearly 40% on its first day of trading on Wednesday.
The stock closed at $40.50, well above its $29 IPO price, giving the company a market capitalization of $25.7 billion — more than double its last private valuation of $11 billion. The company raised $1.68 billion in its offering.
The Bending Spoons Formula
Bending Spoons has grown rapidly by acquiring once-popular but stagnating brands — including AOL, Eventbrite, Evernote, Meetup, and Vimeo — then turning them profitable through aggressive cost-cutting, launching new features, and raising prices. While similar to private equity, the company has no plans to sell these businesses.
The company's disclosed financials show a dramatic turnaround. Bending Spoons reported $601 million in revenue for Q1, generating $27.4 million in net income. That's a stark improvement from the same period last year, when the company reported a $112 million net loss on $259 million in revenue.
Subscription Engine
The company's name comes from a scene in the science-fiction movie "The Matrix." Subscriptions accounted for 84% of its business last year, underscoring the power of its model: acquire products with existing user bases, improve them, and convert free users to paid subscribers.
The 'Venture Zombie' Trend
Before the offering, Baillie Gifford was Bending Spoons' largest outside shareholder, followed by Renaissance Partners, Cox Enterprises, Durable Capital Partners, Fidelity, and T. Rowe Price.
The IPO represents a significant windfall for the company's five co-founders: Luca Ferrari, Francesco Patarnello, Matteo Danieli, Luca Querella, and Tomasz Greber.
Other firms following a similar strategy — often called acquiring "venture zombie" companies — include Constellation Software, Curious, Tiny, saas.group, Arising Ventures, and Calm Capital.
