Bending Spoons Buys Miro for $1.36B, 92% Below Its 2021 Peak

Bending Spoons Buys Miro for $1.36B, 92% Below Its 2021 Peak

Quick Reads

• Bending Spoons will pay $1.36 billion in cash for Miro, valuing the deal at $1.79 billion in equity.
• Miro was once valued at $17.5 billion in late 2021, making this a 92% valuation cut.
• Miro now has over four million paying users and 100 million total users worldwide.
• The company posts about $600 million in annual recurring revenue and stays profitable.
• The deal follows Bending Spoons’ $1.28 billion purchase of Airtable just last month.

Bending Spoons buys Miro in a deal worth $1.36 billion in cash, with an equity value of $1.79 billion. The Italian serial acquirer continues its pattern of scooping up once-hot software companies at steep discounts. Miro, the workplace collaboration platform, was valued at $17.5 billion in late 2021. That means Bending Spoons buys Miro at roughly a 92% discount from its peak valuation. The company disclosed the deal on Thursday, marking another major move in its acquisition spree.

Founded in 2011 as RealtimeBoard, Miro grew rapidly during the pandemic. Companies moving to remote work wanted to replicate physical whiteboard collaboration online. Miro capitalized on that shift by integrating with more than 250 apps. It struck partnerships with Atlassian, Cisco, Microsoft, and Zoom along the way. The platform now calls itself an AI innovation workspace. It offers AI assistants, workflow tools, and connectors that pull context from GitHub, Jira, and Slack.

By 2022, Miro had grown from five million to about 30 million users in two years. Its paying customer base expanded by 550% during that period. Today, Miro counts more than four million paying users and 100 million total users. According to Bending Spoons’ own platform, Miro now generates about $600 million in annual recurring revenue. Ninety percent of that revenue comes from businesses and enterprises. The company also holds roughly $435 million in net cash and remains profitable.

Still, the steep valuation cut reflects how much SaaS multiples have fallen since 2021. Businesses tightened spending after the pandemic tailwinds faded, cutting duplicate software licenses. Miro faced fierce competition from better-funded rivals like Canva, Figma, and Microsoft. As a result, it likely got squeezed as buyers consolidated toward fewer collaboration suites.

Bending Spoons is capitalizing on this shift by acquiring proven, profitable companies cheaply. The Miro purchase closely mirrors its acquisition of Airtable last month for $1.28 billion. Notably, Airtable was once valued at over $11 billion during the 2021 boom. Meanwhile, questions remain about why Miro’s board accepted this price despite not needing cash. It raises a broader question about confidence in SaaS companies achieving strong public exits.