How Bending Spoons Became a $25 Billion Public Company

Bending Spoons, a Milan-based software company, started trading on Nasdaq on July 1, 2026, under the ticker "BSP". The company raised $1.68 billion in its initial public offering at $29 per share and opened trading at $31, closing the day about 40% higher. At its peak in early trading, the company's market value briefly hit $25 billion — more than double what private investors valued it at before the IPO.

The numbers tell a striking story. According to TechCrunch, the company reported $1.31 billion in revenue for 2025, up sharply from $387 million in 2023. That's roughly a 3.4x increase in just two years. As of March 2026, Bending Spoons' apps reached more than 500 million monthly active users, with about 9 million paying subscribers — according to the SEC filing. In practical terms, that's a 1.8% conversion rate from casual users to paying customers across the company's software portfolio, which is a solid operating result.

What the Company Actually Does

Bending Spoons started as Evertale, a Copenhagen-based startup that presented at Disrupt SF 2011. After a pivot and relocation to Milan, the company developed a distinctive business model: buy existing consumer software products — often ones that are struggling or undervalued — improve them with smarter operations and AI-assisted design, and grow them through a shared platform infrastructure.

The portfolio includes some well-known brands. AOL, Vimeo, Meetup, Eventbrite, WeTransfer, and Issuu are all part of Bending Spoons now. The AOL acquisition was particularly noteworthy because the brand has bounced around multiple owners over the years, and its acquisition by a European software company represents an unlikely chapter in that story.

Before the acquisition spree, the company gained public attention in Europe for a civic project. In 2020, Bending Spoons built and donated Immuni — Italy's official contact-tracing app during the early COVID-19 pandemic — without charging the government. It was a significant act of public engineering that gave the company credibility and visibility across Europe.

What This Valuation Really Means

The revenue growth from $387 million in 2023 to $1.31 billion in 2025 provides a straightforward foundation for the IPO price and valuation. Growing that quickly while building a user base of half a billion monthly active users is a solid business case, even though some of the underlying brands — like Vimeo and Eventbrite — have had difficult years as independent companies.

The 40% jump on the first day of trading is trickier to interpret. It could mean the IPO was priced conservatively to ensure the offering would succeed, which is a common underwriter tactic. But it also means the company left money on the table — it could have raised more by pricing higher. What matters more is how the stock trades in the weeks ahead, once initial enthusiasm settles and the lock-up period for early employees expires.

There is one structural challenge worth considering. A significant portion of Bending Spoons' revenue comes from brands like AOL, Meetup, and Eventbrite — categories that face real competition or are declining overall. The company's argument is that better management and AI-assisted product improvements can extract more value from these assets than previous owners did. The revenue growth from 2023 to 2025 suggests this playbook has worked so far. Whether it holds up as a public company trading at much higher multiples is a question the market will answer over time.

What is clear now is that a European software company with Italian incorporation and limited public recognition — especially outside the tech industry — has built something substantial enough to list on one of the world's largest stock exchanges. The path from a Copenhagen startup pitching at a tech conference in 2011 to a $25 billion valuation took fifteen years and a very particular strategy.