What are bending spoons? Everything to know about AOL’s acquirer

Bending Spoons’ four co-founders this week joined the ranks of billionaires.

CEO Luca Ferrari’s stake in the Milan-based tech conglomerate is now reportedly worth $1.4 billion, while co-founders Matteo Danieli, Luca Querella and Francesco Patarnello each hold shares worth $1.3 billion, according to Forbes estimates based on shareholder data published by the Italian company registry.

The valuations come on the heels of Bending Spoons’ latest funding round: $270 million from investors including T. Rowe Price and former backers Baillie Gifford, Cox Enterprises, Durable Capital Partners and Fidelity, plus a secondary share sale of $440 million from existing shareholders. It is unclear whether any of the co-founders sold shares in the secondary transaction. Bending Spoons has declined to comment on its co-founders’ efforts.

Despite its catchy name, Bending Spoons has stayed remarkably under the radar. The 12-year-old outfit typically only makes headlines when it adds another recognizable brand to its growing portfolio — most recently last week when it agreed to buy AOL. for an undisclosed amount.

But Bending Spoons is not a traditional private equity firm or a purely financial investment vehicle. Its focus is on acquiring underperforming but popular technology brands and then transforming them to serve millions of users more efficiently.

The company tends to make news when it restructures these acquired businesses, often through significant layoffs, or makes controversial changes to beloved products — or both in the case of Evernote and WeTransfer.

Yet Bending Spoons itself is largely unknown, even though its list of products has served more than a billion people, with over 300 million monthly active users and 10 million paying customers. Here’s what you need to know about the company that’s reshaping some of the internet’s most recognizable brands.

What are bending spoons?

Bending Spoons describes itself as a company that acquires and transforms digital companies. Having grown to a staff of 400 to 500 “Spooners”, its main focus is on making improvements to products and services created by others.

It didn’t start out that way though – Bending Spoons’ founders had tried building their own apps and products before eventually shifting their focus.

The little-known back story is that Bending Spoons was born out of the remains of Evertale, a Copenhagen-based startup that participated in Disrupt SF 2011’s Startup Alley and raised seed funding for its photo-sharing app, Wink.

Evertale failed not long after and the investors pulled out, but its founders and a few employees continued to work together, initially on internal apps. Soon enough, the team made its first acquisition, followed by many others, CEO and co-founder Luca Ferrari told the 20VC podcast in a rare interview.

In 2020, Bending Spoons made an exception when it created and donated Immuni, Italy’s official COVID-19 contact tracing app. But other than that, it’s mostly been honing a formula: Bending Spoons identifies a popular product it thinks it can improve inside and out, and buys it from owners who’ve pushed their limits.

After the acquisition, Bending Spoons is anything but a passive owner, making changes to the products’ user experience and functions, but also to the underlying technology; revenue strategy, including pricing; and team organisation, including number of employees.

While this focus on efficiency and earnings overlaps with private equity strategies, Bending Spoons claims an important difference: it “aims to last forever and has never sold an acquired company.” It builds a live portfolio, doesn’t collect internet relics or preside over a tech graveyard.

To be clear, Bending Spoons’ acquisition targets so far haven’t necessarily been failing companies—many still had significant user bases and revenue. But they have tended to be stagnant, neglected or had owners who want to leave. Let’s summarize these key agreements and also what happened in their aftermath.

Which companies has Bending Spoons acquired?

While Bending Spoons acquired several companies between 2014 and 2021, including AI photo enhancer Remini, its most notable acquisition happened recently.

In 2022, it acquired Filmic, known for its popular video and photo editing apps, and laid off the entire staff in December 2023.

In a deal also announced in 2022 and completed in early 2023, Bending Spoons also acquired Evernote, the note-taking app that had reportedly reached a $1 billion valuation before running into trouble. Layoffs followed the acquisition, as well as cuts to Evernote’s free offering.

The first half of the following year, 2024, was particularly active with the acquisition of Meetup, app maker Mosaic Group and Hopins StreamYard in the first half.

In July 2024, it acquired publishing platform Issuu and file transfer service WeTransfer, later cutting staff and making changes to its free plan, introducing stricter limits. Later that year, Bending Spoons announced it would spend $233 million in a private deal to acquire video platform Brightcove.

Acquisitions have continued apace in 2025, with acquisitions including outdoor route planner Komoot and management software maker Harvest.

Bending Spoons also announced its intention to acquire Vimeo in a $1.38 billion all-cash deal, and even more recently, to acquire AOL from Yahoo. (Disclosure: both AOL and Yahoo are former owners of TechCrunch, with Yahoo retaining a small interest.)

According to Bending Spoons, the acquisitions of AOL and Vimeo are expected to close by the end of the year, subject to standard closing conditions and regulatory approvals, including, in the case of Vimeo, approval from its shareholders.

How Much Are Bending Spoons Worth?

At the end of October 2025, Bending Spoons is one of Europe’s rare tech decacorns (companies valued at more than $10 billion). The startup last raised a $2.8 billion valuation in 2024, making its most recent round a significant step up.

Although they were long boots, Bending Spoons had previously raised equity funding numerous times, including in September 2022 and early 2024. It also has VIPs on the table, including tennis and entertainment stars Andre Agassi and Bradley Cooper; tech industry greats Eric Schmidt, Mike Krieger and Xavier Niel; and the artists The Weeknd, The Chainsmokers and Maluma.

According to Bending Spoons, its new funding will support future acquisitions and investments in its proprietary technology and AI capabilities. This is in addition to the $2.8 billion in debt financing the company disclosed when it announced its intention to acquire AOL, debt that will fund the AOL deal and future acquisitions.

What’s next?

Bending Spoons says it intends to continue to pursue new acquisitions that expand its portfolio of consumer and enterprise digital products, and it now has funding to provide more prominent targets going forward.

AOL and Vimeo already have far more name recognition than previous targets, though deal terms remain undisclosed. The properties also have a certain range. In announcing the AOL deal, Bending Spoons claimed that AOL remains one of the 10 most used email providers in the world, with 8 million daily active users and 30 million monthly active users. (Not long before the AOL acquisition, Bending Spoons was also rumored to be looking at app maker Elysium and Typeform, the Barcelona-based SaaS company known for its form creation tools.)

Presumably to support its continued efforts to acquire companies, it also has openings across various roles, with new hires initially working from its Milan headquarters before being given the option to work from offices in London, Madrid and Warsaw or remotely.

Indeed, despite warning candidates that Bending Spoons is a “demanding environment”, the company has said it has already received more than 600,000 job applications by 2025, a number likely to rise as its latest deals generate further attention.