- Bending Spoons will pay $1.285 billion for Airtable, valuing its equity at roughly $2.25 billion.
- It’s the serial acquirer’s first deal since its Nasdaq listing on July 1, 2026.
- Airtable’s annual recurring revenue hit approximately $480 million, up more than 20% year over year
Bending Spoons has agreed to acquire the workflow platform Airtable in an all-cash deal valued at $1.285 billion in enterprise value, implying an equity value of approximately $2.25 billion once Airtable’s cash balance is factored in. The transaction, unanimously approved by both boards, is expected to close later this year, subject to regulatory approval and other customary closing conditions.
It’s the Milan-based company’s first acquisition since it listed on Nasdaq on July 1, 2026, and it brings one of the best-known no-code platforms into a portfolio.
“Airtable is a pioneering brand reshaping how teams organise data and manage critical workflows. We’re committed to investing in Airtable for the long run, and doubling down on its core strength: bringing teams and workflows together in one flexible workspace,” said Luca Ferrari, Bending Spoons’ chief executive and co-founder.
A buyer that doesn’t flip what it buys
Bending Spoons has built its business on a model that looks unusual next to traditional private equity: it buys established digital products, restructures them, layers in AI, and holds onto them rather than exiting. The company says it has never sold a material business since it started the strategy more than a decade ago.
That approach has already pulled in Evernote, WeTransfer, Brightcove, Meetup, StreamYard, Harvest, Komoot, Vimeo, AOL, and Eventbrite, with AOL closing in January 2026 and Eventbrite in March 2026, both ahead of the IPO.
Across its businesses, Bending Spoons served more than 500 million monthly active users and over nine million paying customers as of March 2026. Airtable is the first name added to that list since the company priced its Nasdaq debut at an $18.4 billion valuation, up from $11 billion less than a year earlier — a sign it’s spending public-market capital rather than the debt and private equity that funded the AOL and Eventbrite deals.
From spreadsheet to $2.25B exit
Howie Liu co-founded Airtable in 2013 alongside Andrew Ofstad and Emmett Nicholas, building a tool that combined the familiarity of a spreadsheet with the structure of a database, enabling teams to build custom workflows without engineering support. The company had raised roughly $1.35 billion over its lifetime, reaching an $11 billion valuation in a 2021 funding round, before this acquisition.
“When we founded Airtable in 2013, we set out to share the magic of building software with more people — to put the power to create apps in the hands of anyone, regardless of technical skill. Partnering with Bending Spoons gives us the resources and the long-term commitment Airtable needs to pursue that vision even more boldly as we build the AI-native platform of the future,” said Howie Liu, Airtable’s co-founder and chief executive.
Airtable counts more than 500,000 organizations as customers, including 80% of the Fortune 100, and generated approximately $480 million in annual recurring revenue as of June 2026, up more than 20% year over year. The deal marks a step down from its 2021 peak valuation but still represents a sizable outcome for its investors, who included CRV, Benchmark, Thrive Capital, Coatue, and Salesforce Ventures.
The deal team
Willkie Farr & Gallagher is advising Bending Spoons on legal matters, with EY Advisory handling financial and tax due diligence and Goldman Sachs Bank Europe and J.P. Morgan acting as co-financial advisors. Airtable is advised by Latham & Watkins on legal matters and AXOM Partners on financing. Neither company disclosed a quote from an outside investor or advisor in the announcement.
Until the deal closes, Bending Spoons and Airtable will continue to operate independently.
