Bending Spoons: A Serial Acquirer's First Act as a Public Company
In its inaugural earnings call, Bending Spoons posted triple-digit growth and doubled down on its acquisition-and-transformation playbook, powered by AI and a fresh capital war chest.
BSP · Earnings Call · 2026-08-13
The Playbook in Action
Bending Spoons' first quarterly call as a publicly traded company was less a debut and more a declaration of intent. The numbers were striking — revenue up 126% to $704 million, operating income up 139% to $240 million, and adjusted operating income up 150% to $381 million. But the real story was the strategy behind them, laid out in the opening remarks by CEO Luca Ferrari: “Our playbook is simple. We acquire digital businesses, undertake deep integrations and transformations to improve them and reinvest the cash they generate together with incremental leverage in further acquisitions.” — Luca Ferrari, Co-Founder and CEO · 2026-08-13 It's a model that has been refining themselves for over a decade, and the quarter's results — including a record operational capacity with revenue per Spooner exceeding $4 million annualized — suggest the machine is operating at peak efficiency.
Scaling Against Three Constraints
Ferrari explicitly addressed what could limit growth, framing the discussion around three potential bottlenecks: addressable market availability, operational capacity, and access to capital. The first, he argued, is not a near-term concern, citing an internal analysis of more than 1,000 digital businesses representing nearly $400 billion in revenue. The second is where AI is becoming a game-changer. Ferrari described how the company's internal AI agent, Alt Spooner, has begun to accelerate everything from code fixes to candidate assessment. He recounted one episode where a manager used Alt-Spooner to diagnose, fix, and submit a bug fix in minutes, a task that previously would have taken a week.
The third constraint — capital — has been forcefully addressed. The quarter saw new euro-denominated term loans, a larger revolving credit facility, and the completion of a $1.1 billion IPO. Enrico Martinelli, Co-CFO, noted that these moves, combined with existing cash, would fund the pending Airtable acquisition while preserving flexibility.
The Airtable Pivot and the Organic Growth Nuance
The most significant strategic signal was the agreement to acquire Airtable at a $1.29 billion enterprise value. The company is fast-growing, self-serve oriented, but also pushes Bending Spoons into enterprise direct sales — a capability the company acknowledges it needs to deepen. Ferrari explained the shift in M&A philosophy succinctly: “Most enterprise businesses were valued at irrationally high levels until somewhat recently... As the market has shifted and prices are now more reasonable, we're finding more opportunities to acquire some of these businesses.” — Luca Ferrari, Co-Founder and CEO · 2026-08-13 The move is consistent with the company's neutral stance on organic growth, which it views as an output of capital allocation rather than a target. Ferrari was blunt: “Organic revenue growth will just be an output of our capital deployment activities, and it could be higher or lower, and it's not something we particularly focus on or -- and certainly not something we optimize for.” — Luca Ferrari, Co-Founder and CEO · 2026-08-13 That said, the 3% organic growth in Q2 was slightly better than expected, aided by WeTransfer and Tractive, while Remini and Splice dragged.
A Machine Built to Compete
What sets Bending Spoons apart is the blend of disciplined underwriting (25% unlevered and 65% levered IRR hurdles), a 700-person "Spooner" team, and a proprietary technology stack that now includes AI-driven operational tools. Ferrari acknowledged investors should assume returns will eventually deteriorate, but argued that the current scale of opportunities and the efficiency gains from AI give the company a durable edge. As he put it: “We believe we're just scratching the surface of what we can accomplish, particularly with AI, which is changing the rules of the game.” — Luca Ferrari, Co-Founder and CEO · 2026-08-13
The company's ambition is to become "the perfect operating machine,” and its first quarter as a public entity reinforced that image. With a robust pipeline, fresh capital, and a demonstrated ability to integrate and transform even complex assets like Vimeo and Eventbrite, Bending Spoons is positioning itself as a serial acquirer capable of scaling far beyond its already impressive trajectory.