Bending Spoons surges in Nasdaq debut, topping $25B valuation

Bending Spoons shares closed at $40.50 on Wednesday, giving the Milan-based company a market cap of $25.7 billion — more than double its last private valuation.reuters
The 13-year-old firm acquires struggling internet brands and revamps them through cost cuts, AI adoption, and price increases, reporting $1.3 billion in 2025 revenue.sifted+1
CEO Luca Ferrari told CNBC that over 90% of the company's code is now written with AI, up from under 10% in early 2025.facebook

Italian technology company Bending Spoons closed its first day of trading on the Nasdaq nearly 40% above its IPO price on Wednesday, capping one of the year's most notable public offerings. Shares opened at $31 and ended the session at $40.50, giving the Milan-based firm a market capitalization of $25.7 billion — more than double its $11 billion private valuation from October 2025.techcrunch+1

The company had priced its IPO at $29 per share on Tuesday night, above the marketed range of $26 to $28, raising $1.68 billion through the sale of roughly 58 million shares. At the offering price, Bending Spoons was valued at approximately $18.4 billion.reuters+3

A Private Equity Playbook for Software

Founded in 2013 by CEO Luca Ferrari, Bending Spoons has grown by acquiring aging but recognizable internet brands — including AOL, Vimeo, Eventbrite, Evernote, WeTransfer, and Meetup — then applying cost cuts, price increases, and new features to restore profitability. The company reported $1.3 billion in revenue last year and $601 million in the first quarter of 2026 alone, according to its SEC filing.fastcompany+2

Goldman Sachs The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. , JPMorgan Chase , and Allen & Co. led the offering, with shares listed under the ticker "BSP." Notable investors include Fidelity , T. Rowe Price T. Rowe Price Group, Inc. , and Durable Capital Partners.ipox+2

AI as a Scaling Engine

Ferrari emphasized Bending Spoons' aggressive adoption of artificial intelligence during media appearances on IPO day. "We went from almost no code being written with AI to now north of 90% of our code being written with AI," he told CNBC. According to the company's IPO filing, the share of pull requests authored or co-authored by AI grew from less than 10% in early 2025 to more than 90% by the first quarter of 2026.aletteraday.substack+2

The listing marks the largest Nasdaq debut by a European company in recent years and a rare software IPO in a 2026 market dominated by AI hardware firms. Nearly 41% of the offering's proceeds — about $684 million — went to existing shareholders who sold stock.morningstar+2

Sources (37)