Italian tech group Bending Spoons jumps on Nasdaq debut

Bending Spoons’ shares rose almost 10 per cent after its initial public offering on Wednesday, turning its co-founders into billionaires, as investors backed the Italian technology conglomerate in one of the largest share offerings by a European company this year.

The Milan-based group went public in an $18.4bn Nasdaq listing, raising $1.68bn from investors, in a deal that is viewed as a bellwether for investor appetite for the software sector amid fears that AI will disrupt traditional business models.

The company had priced at $29 a share, above the marketed range of $26 to $28, in the first sign of strong demand from investors. The shares rose 9.8 per cent to $31.85 on Wednesday.

Bending Spoons buys and fixes struggling technology groups, including Vimeo, AOL and Eventbrite, with the aim of making at least 25 per cent annualised returns on capital. However, unlike private equity rivals, it does not then look to sell.

The company was founded in 2013 by current chief executive Luca Ferrari alongside four co-founders, with a plan to “acquire digital businesses, implement deep transformations and ongoing optimisations to sustainably expand earnings,” according to its IPO prospectus.

Ferrari and remaining co-founders Francesco Patarnello, Matteo Danieli and Luca Querella have all become billionaires from the listing due to their holdings in the company.

Bending Spoons has made 50 acquisitions, including Vimeo in 2025 and Eventbrite this year, with the group’s prospectus saying it had identified a further 1,000 potential targets.

However, it has come under fire for its methods, which can result in large-scale job cuts at the companies it buys, something Ferrari has been forced to justify as the price of the transformations.

As of March, Bending Spoons had more than 500mn monthly active users and more than 9mn monthly paying customers, its prospectus said. The company posted revenues of $1.31bn in 2025, up from $387mn in 2023.

Bending Spoons is the latest in a series of listings in recent months, led by SpaceX’s blockbuster share offering in June.

Neutron Holdings, parent company of electric bike and scooter rental group Lime, also began trading in New York on Wednesday after raising $167mn from investors in a $1.6bn listing.

Follow the topics in this article

Comments