Bending Spoons: The Italian “Software Surgeon” That Revives Old Internet Brands – Quasa

In one of the more unusual tech IPO stories of 2026, Italian company Bending Spoons successfully listed on Nasdaq, raising $1.68 billion at a $29 per share price. On the first day of trading, shares surged around 40% to approximately $40.50, pushing the company’s market capitalization to roughly $25.7 billion  (per recent market data). The company has quietly built a portfolio of well-known but often struggling digital brands — including Vimeo, Evernote, AOL, WeTransfer, Eventbrite, Meetup, and dozens of others — by acquiring them at what it sees as undervalued prices and then aggressively optimizing them for profitability. The “Serial Acquirer + Deep Transformation” Playbook Founded in 2013 in Copenhagen (later headquartered in Milan) by Luca Ferrari and a small group of co-founders with just $40,000 from a previous failed startup, Bending Spoons started modestly by buying small mobile apps. Over time, it evolved into what Ferrari describes as roughly 25% private equity and 75% technology company. The strategy is consistent: Identify established digital businesses with real product-market fit but significant inefficiencies or untapped potential. Acquire them outright (not minority stakes). Fully integrate them into Bending Spoons’ platform. Rebuild large parts of the codebase (often using AI tools and modern stacks like Python/FastAPI/TypeScript). Aggressively
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