Bending Spoons, the Milan-based technology conglomerate that quietly amassed a portfolio of iconic digital brands including AOL, Vimeo, and Evernote, has gone public on the Nasdaq. The company’s shares popped on debut, briefly pushing its market capitalisation above $25 billion, before settling back. Even after the slight slump, its valuation remains roughly double the $11 billion private valuation it commanded before the listing, signalling strong investor confidence in its distinctive acquisition playbook.
The firm’s strategy resembles private equity in its focus on financial efficiency, but with a crucial difference: Bending Spoons says it intends to hold every acquired business indefinitely and has never sold one. Co-founder and chief product officer Matteo Danieli told TechCrunch that despite controversy over post-acquisition price increases and staff cuts, customer retention has been 'remarkably stable'. The company’s portfolio now serves over 500 million monthly active users and more than 9 million paying customers, according to its IPO filing.
Bending Spoons reported $1.31 billion in revenue for 2025, and investors are betting on further growth. Entrepreneur Joe Hyrkin, who sold digital publishing platform Issuu to Bending Spoons in 2024, pushed back against the narrative that the firm buys 'dead' internet companies. Writing on LinkedIn after the IPO, he said: 'They acquire products with real customer behaviour, then integrate them into a centralised system of product, engineering, data, monetisation, AI, and operating discipline.'
The company’s roots are humble. It was born from the collapse of Evertale, a Copenhagen-based photo-sharing startup that failed not long after participating in a 2011 startup event. The founders and a few employees stuck together, building in-house apps before making their first acquisition. For years, Bending Spoons remained bootstrapped and avoided venture capital, but it eventually raised equity rounds in 2022, 2024, and 2025, attracting high-profile backers including Eric Schmidt, Bradley Cooper, and The Weeknd.
For UK businesses and consumers, Bending Spoons’ rise underscores a growing trend: the acquisition and AI-driven overhaul of established digital products. The company’s approach — centralising engineering, data, and monetisation — offers a template for extracting value from legacy platforms, but also raises questions about user experience and pricing. As the UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) continues to scrutinise AI and data use, and the EU AI Act sets new compliance standards, Bending Spoons’ heavy reliance on artificial intelligence to optimise its products will face increasing regulatory attention. For now, the market has endorsed its model, and the company’s public listing marks a new chapter for one of tech’s most quietly powerful players.