Remember the child in the film The Matrix, who could bend spoons? That character inspired the Italian software house Bending Spoons, and its motto, “Impossible. Maybe”, is a reminder that the impossible exists until someone makes it possible.
Sometimes you win, sometimes you learn
Bending Spoons is the second Italian start-up to become a ‘unicorn’, i.e. a company with a value of more than a billion dollars. The start-up was founded in Copenhagen by four young Italian engineers: Luca Ferrari, Matteo Danieli, Luca Querella, and Francesco Patarnello. They were all abroad to attend a master’s course, thanks to a scholarship. Here, they founded their first start-up, Evertail, which closed down within a couple of years. Strengthened by this experience and far from discouraged, they founded Bending Spoons in 2013 with their Polish friend Tomasz Greber. The aim is to develop applications for Android and IOS that improve people’s lives and create a positive and lasting impact on customers, employees and society at large.
A piece of advice that is as good as funding
In 2014, they moved their headquarters to Milan, and after only a few weeks, they were already generating profits. Ese mismo año, Patarnello participó en una subasta benéfica, ganando, por un precio de 25.000 euros y tras 144 pujas, un almuerzo de negocios con el empresario romano Riccardo Zacconi, creador de Candy Crush Saga. Patarnello is convinced that Zacconi’s opinion is worth more than funding, and given the results of Bending Spoon, he was probably right. In 2018, the company had a dozen apps in its portfolio, more than 200 million total downloads, 270,000 new users per day, and a turnover of more than 45 million euros.
The Immuni app, a missed opportunity
In 2020, Bending Spoons developed the Immuni app with the collaboration of Centro Medico Santagostino and licensed it to the Italian government. It cannot be said that the app’s use has been decisive in containing the contagion. However, Bending Spoons went straight ahead and, in 2021, entered the FT 1000 – the Financial Times ranking of the 1000 fastest-growing companies in Europe – in seventy-ninth place.
Growth and acquisitions
2022 was a significant year for Bending Spoons because, thanks to a funding round, it successfully acquired Evernote, a personal productivity app and a former Silicon Valley unicorn. In August 2023, a $155 million funding round definitively positioned the company among the “unicorns,” with a total valuation of $2.55 billion.
2024 began with two acquisitions: the first was Mosaic Group, a company specializing in mobile software; the second was Meetup, the social network with 60 million members that facilitates the aggregation of groups of people who share interests and passions. Also in 2024, Bending Spoons acquired the file transfer platform WeTransfer. The acquisition of Vimeo dates back to 2025, allowing the company to further expand its portfolio.
A futuristic new headquarters
A febbraio 2024, Bending Spoons, che l’anno precedente aveva ottenuto la certificazione Great Place to Work®, ha inaugurato i suoi nuovi uffici milanesi in via Nino Bonnet e oggi l’azienda è uno dei principali sviluppatori di app al mondo con centinaia di dipendenti e un fatturato pari a circa 2 miliardi di euro.
Congratulations to those who do not give up and look for innovative solutions!
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