Who Is Bending Spoons? Its Track Record, Fairly Explained

For many Airtable customers, the biggest question after the acquisition announcement is simple: Who is Bending Spoons?

The Milan-based technology company is very different from a traditional enterprise software buyer. Its business model is built around acquiring established digital products, improving their technology and economics, and operating them for the long term. Bending Spoons says it does not buy companies with the intention of selling them again.

That approach has made the company one of the most active technology acquirers in recent years. Its portfolio now includes well-known products such as Evernote, WeTransfer, Vimeo, Meetup, Brightcove, komoot, Eventbrite and AOL.

Understanding that Bending Spoons acquisition strategy gives Airtable customers a better basis for judging what could happen next.

What Is Bending Spoons?

Bending Spoons was founded in Italy and has grown largely by acquiring digital businesses rather than building every major product from scratch.

By its 2026 IPO, the company had completed more than 50 acquisitions and said it had identified more than 1,000 additional digital businesses that could potentially fit its acquisition model.

The company describes its approach as acquiring and improving established products while maintaining relatively small, highly focused teams. It also develops shared technologies that can be applied across businesses in areas such as payments, marketing attribution, data infrastructure, access management and product development.

For Airtable customers, this matters because Bending Spoons is not entering its first software acquisition. It has an established operating playbook.

Bending Spoons’ Acquisition Strategy

The Bending Spoons business model combines elements of a technology operator and an investment company.

It generally looks for established digital products with recognizable brands, existing customers and recurring usage. After an acquisition, Bending Spoons may make significant changes to the company behind the product while continuing to invest in the product itself.

That distinction is important.

An acquired company may look very different organizationally a year later, while the software continues to receive development and new features.

Bending Spoons itself describes the transformations it makes after acquisitions as potentially “deep,” with the aim of accelerating innovation and improving business performance.

This approach has produced both positive product results and legitimate customer concerns.

What Happened After the Evernote Acquisition?

Evernote provides one of the clearest examples of the Bending Spoons track record.

Bending Spoons completed its acquisition of Evernote in early 2023. Later that year, Evernote moved most of its operations to Europe and laid off most of its US- and Chile-based employees. The company said the restructuring was intended to improve operational efficiency and bring Evernote closer to Bending Spoons’ European organization.

For employees, that was clearly a major disruption.

For the product, however, the story did not end with the restructuring.

Bending Spoons reports that Evernote has since received more than 200 features and improvements, along with significant improvements to synchronization performance. Independent coverage has also noted a substantial increase in Evernote’s pace of product development following the acquisition, although some users have been unhappy with pricing changes.

That combination—aggressive restructuring alongside continued product investment—is important when evaluating what Bending Spoons ownership could mean for Airtable.

What Happened With WeTransfer?

WeTransfer shows the more controversial side of the same strategy.

Bending Spoons acquired WeTransfer in July 2024. Shortly afterward, CEO Luca Ferrari confirmed plans to reduce WeTransfer’s workforce by roughly 75%.

At the same time, Bending Spoons says it has continued investing in the WeTransfer product, including improvements to transfer recovery and upload performance.

For Airtable customers, the lesson is not that the same workforce changes will necessarily happen at Airtable. There is currently no evidence supporting that conclusion.

The lesson is that Bending Spoons acquisitions can involve major operational restructuring while product development continues.

Product Investment Is Part of the Pattern

Across its portfolio, Bending Spoons highlights continued development after acquisitions.

It says StreamYard has received more than 50 improvements, komoot more than 80, Evernote more than 200, and Vimeo more than 30 since their respective acquisitions. Brightcove has also introduced new AI, video and streaming capabilities under Bending Spoons ownership.

This is relevant to the future of Airtable because it challenges a simple assumption that acquiring a mature software product necessarily means putting it into maintenance mode.

Bending Spoons’ public strategy is closer to acquiring established products, restructuring where it believes necessary, and then investing in technology and product development.

The question for Airtable customers is therefore less about whether Airtable will continue to exist and more about how its priorities may change.

What Could This Mean for Airtable?

Bending Spoons agreed on August 4, 2026 to acquire Airtable in an all-cash transaction with an enterprise value of approximately $1.285 billion. The deal is expected to close by the end of 2026, subject to regulatory approval and other closing conditions.

Until the acquisition closes, Airtable continues to operate independently.

After closing, there are several areas customers should watch closely:

· Airtable pricing and packaging

· Product-development priorities

· Enterprise support

· Organizational restructuring

· AI investment

· Automation and API limits

· Enterprise governance

· Partner relationships

Bending Spoons’ history suggests that customers should be prepared for change, but it does not tell us exactly what those changes will be.

Every acquisition involves a different product, financial position, customer base and operating structure.

A Balanced View of the Bending Spoons Track Record

It would be misleading to describe the Bending Spoons acquisition strategy as either entirely positive or entirely negative.

There is evidence of significant workforce reductions after several acquisitions. Evernote, WeTransfer and Vimeo have all experienced restructuring under or around Bending Spoons ownership.

There is also clear evidence of continued investment in acquired products, including substantial feature development across Evernote, WeTransfer, komoot, StreamYard, Vimeo and Brightcove.

For Airtable customers, both sides matter.

Customers should not assume that nothing will change after the acquisition. They also should not assume that Bending Spoons intends to shut Airtable down or stop investing in the product.

Conclusion

So, who is Bending Spoons?

It is an experienced technology acquirer with a clear model: buy established digital businesses, make substantial operational changes where it believes they are needed, invest in the products, and hold them for the long term.

Its track record shows both aggressive restructuring and continued product development.

That makes the right response for Airtable customers fairly straightforward.

Watch what happens rather than trying to predict it.

Pay attention to Airtable pricing, support, AI development, enterprise features, product releases and contractual changes. Those signals will provide much more useful information about the future of Airtable than assumptions based on any single previous Bending Spoons acquisition.

For now, the evidence supports a balanced position: expect the possibility of meaningful change, but judge those changes by their actual impact on Airtable customers and the platform itself.