Italian M&A giant Bending Spoons has filed to IPO on the Nasdaq.
Founded in 2013 by CEO Luca Ferrari, the scaleup has raised more than $600m from investors including Baillie Gifford, Ryan Reynolds and Endeavor Catalyst.
The company, which was valued at $11bn in October last year, acquires apps and products, including Eventbrite, WeTransfer and AOL. Once acquired, Bending Spoons gets to work quickly trying to turn those businesses around, frequently laying off the majority of their teams, and figuring out ways to dramatically boost growth.
Speaking to Sifted in April 2025, an early investor in the company — Partech’s Simone Riva — said Ferrari “would never sell the company [to a big tech giant] [....] he wants to go public on the NASDAQ.”
“We could IPO if we wanted today,” Ferrari added. “But we don’t have any plans in the immediate future.”
According to the IPO filing, the app developer generated $1.3bn of revenue last year, and $601m in Q1 2026. In an accompanying letter, Ferrari writes that Bending Spoon has identified over 1,000 “attractive acquisition targets”.
A flurry of European startups have filed to IPO in the US over the last few months, including smart ring maker Oura.
