What is Bending Spoons? Everything to know about Eventbrite’s acquirer

Summary

Twelve-year-old Milan-based tech conglomerate Bending Spoons has quietly become one of the tech industry’s most prolific buyers, now owning Meetup, WeTransfer and many others, but it remains largely unknown to the general public. So what exactly is Bending Spoons? Despite its catchy name, the company has stayed remarkably under the radar, and it typically makes headlines only when it adds another recognizable brand to its portfolio — the latest in date being Eventbrite, which it agreed to buy for $500 million last December. But Bending Spoons isn’t a traditional private equity firm or a pure financial investment vehicle. Its focus is on acquiring underperforming but popular tech brands, then transforming them to serve millions of users more efficiently. The company tends to make news when it restructures these acquired companies, often through significant layoffs, or makes controversial changes to beloved products — as it did with both Evernote and WeTransfer. Still, Bending Spoons remains largely unknown, even though its roster of products has served more than a billion people, with over 300 million monthly active users and 10 million paying customers. Here’s what you need to know about the company reshaping some of the internet’s most recognizable brands. What is Bending Spoons? Bending Spoons describes itself as a company that acquires and transforms digital businesses. Having grown to a headcount of 400 to 500 employees (whom the company calls “Spooners”), its main focus is on making improvements to products and services that others have created. However, it didn’t start that way — Bending Spoons’ founders had taken a stab at building their own apps and products before eventually shifting their focus. Techcrunch event San Francisco | October 13-15, 2026 The little-known backstory is that Bending Spoons was born out of the remains of Evertale, a Copenhagen-based startup that participated in Disrupt SF 2011’s Startup Alley and raised seed funding for its photo-sha...