The Italian scaleup may list on the ground of an equity value in the region of 20 billion.
Italian mobile apps developer Bending Spoons, a company that Francesco Patarnello, Luca Ferrari, Matteo Danieli, and Luca Querella founded and in which invested Renaissance Partners and StarTIP (part of Milan-listed Tamburi Investment Partners – TIP), filed with the US Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) its application for launching an IPO on Nasdaq with the Preliminary Prospectus (F1module and Prospectus and press release).
The company has not yet fully disclosed all the details for the IPO that gained momentum in January 2026 (see here a previous post by BeBeez) and for which reported joint-bookrunner are Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Allen & Company, Intesa Sanpaolo, UniCredit, Banca Akros – Gruppo Banco BPM, Wells Fargo Securities, BofA Securities, Jefferies, Evercore ISI, BNP Paribas, Mizuho, Societe Generale, and Crédit Agricole CIB.
Bending Spoons, Satispay and ScalaPay are the Italian unicorns. The soon to list app developer generated a turnover of 1.31 billion US Dollars nel 2025 (387 million US Dollars in 2023, an average annual growth rate of 84%). The transition from acquired products to recurring subscription models (SaaS/Subscription), the optimisation of marketing flows, and a drastic reduction in the subsidiaries’ fixed operating costs and of structural redundancies boosted this growth. However, revenue increase in 1Q26 was exponential, above 600 million US dollars from around 260 million in 1Q25 for a pre-tax profit of 76 million US dollars (loss of 27 million in 1Q25).
The strategy behind this surge involves acquiring existing digital companies and reimagining them from scratch, optimising their code, technological infrastructure, user experience and pricing. The company employs unconventional practices: prioritising potential and talent over established experience (many senior roles are led by under-40s who have progressed through the ranks), focusing on absolute financial returns rather than organic revenue growth, and aggressive restructuring to restore acquired companies to the status of lean start-ups and technology generators. This system serves over 500 million monthly active users. The portfolio includes long-established brands and large-scale platforms such as AOL, Eventbrite, Evernote, Vimeo, WeTransfer, StreamYard, Remini, komoot e Harvest.
The Spooners Platform, a centralised hub of highly talented engineers, data scientists and product managers, is at the base of such strategy. Teams flexibly restructure acquired businesses. AI is the internal driver of productivity. By 1Q26, AI generated or co-generated over 90% of proposed changes to enterprise software (pull requests). This has more than doubled revenue per employee (Full-Time Equivalent) from 1.1 million US dollars in 2023 to 2.6 million in 2025 and 1 million dollars in 1Q26. However, the M&A strategy is the key element of Bending Spoons’ venture capital fund or perpetual compounder alike strategy. The company mapped over 1,000 potential digital targets (public and private) for annual aggregate turnover of 400 billion US Dollars.
In the final quarter of this year, acquisitions closed after the end of 2024 closed generated 76% of Bending Spoons revenue. The company highlights as some of the risk factors the non-trivial challenge of identifying, acquiring and restructuring assets. Furthermore, the recent large-scale acquisitions (AOL, Eventbrite, Vimeo) may take longer than expected to reach target profitability or could lead to integration issues.
Bending Spoons reinveste sistematicamente i flussi di cassa operativi nel ciclo di M&A, ma ricorre anche a un mix di debito ed equity. A Marzo 2025 Bending Spoons ha ottenuto un prestito in direct lending di 600 million US Dollars dai fondi di Silver Point Capital e da altri investitori (see here a previous post by BeBeez). In August 2025, the Italian unicorn attracted 500 million Euros venture debt facilities from JP Morgan, BNP Paribas e Crédit Agricole, Banco BPM, Bank of America, Barclays, Goldman Sachs, HSBC, Intesa Sanpaolo, Mizuho, Société Générale, and Wells Fargo (see here a previous post by BeBeez).
In October 2025, Bending Spoons secured a 710 million US Dollars equity megaround (see here a previous post by BeBeez) on the ground of a pre-money value of 11 billion US Dollars (press release) which serves as the benchmark for the forthcoming listing.
The IPO includes ordinary and new issuance shares that may finance the firm’s working capital and eventual M&A while some of the investors will carry on a full exit. Bending Spoons aims to place 120.2 million of ordinary shares without option rights, while 51 million stocks without option rights are part of the benefit plans for employees. On 28 May, Thursday, Bending Spoons decided to carry on a reverse stock split with a 1 to 2 ratio for reducing the number of shares from 1.347 million to 673 million. The capital increase therefore represents a stake of approximately 20% of the post-IPO equity.
The IPO placement could be in the region of 4 billion US Dollars with two share classes:
- Ordinary (public and non converitble) Shares: 1 vote per stock.
- Class A (unlisted) Shares: 5 votes per stock. Such shares are convertible at par into ordinary stocks. The founders will retain control of the majority of total voting rights through Class A shares, thereby safeguarding long-term strategic governance.
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