Bending Spoons has been listed; starting at an initial price of $29 per share, as we had anticipated, it reached $42.61 at 6 pm (New York time) on the first day of trading and, by midday on the second day, at around 2.00 pm on 2 July at approximately $35 per share, a level it maintained until the close, reaching $35.50 and marking the end of the initial public offering period. The gross proceeds of the offering for Bending Spoons, before discounts, underwriting commissions and other offering expenses, amounted to approximately $953,917,285.50.
The company is listed on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol BSP and has offered a total of 57,971,015 ordinary shares, of which 34,398,640 are being offered by Bending Spoons and 23,572,375 by certain selling shareholders from whom the company will receive no proceeds. Furthermore, Bending Spoons and the selling shareholders have granted the underwriters an option to purchase up to a further 5,244,026 ordinary shares from Bending Spoons and up to a further 3,451,626 ordinary shares from the selling shareholders at the initial public offering price, net of underwriting discounts and commissions. The gross proceeds of the offering for Bending Spoons, before underwriting discounts and commissions and other offering expenses, amounted to approximately $953,917,285.50, bringing the total free float to just under $2 billion on a total company valuation of over $18 billion, which represents a significant increase compared with the pre-money valuation of $11 billion recorded in October 2025 when the last funding round closed, raising $710 million, prior to the listing.
Stratospheric figures for a company that began as a start-up in Italy, which has scaled up incredibly quickly and showed great promise right from the start; as early as 2018, when we brought it to ScaleIt, it was already shining as one of the gems of the Italian ecosystem.
These figures underscore a phenomenon that also represents a major opportunity: it is an opportunity because new millionaires – many of whom are young or very young – will be able to help inject fresh resources into the ecosystem, as we have written here; and it is an opportunity because the founders of Bending Spoons, Luca Ferrari, Matteo Danieli, Francesco Patarnello and Luca Querella, demonstrated leadership during the listing event by giving credit to all those who contributed to the achievement – not only by bringing a good number of staff members to New York (along with some influencers), but also by giving them a place at the solemn bell-ringing ceremony that marked the start of trading. These founders have also, over time, wisely and with foresight, built a shareholding structure that allows them to maintain firm control of the company to this day and to avoid excessive dilution of their stakes.
This is therefore a remarkable deal from various perspectives; naturally, we will now be monitoring the share’s performance even after the initial euphoria has subsided, but the significance of this deal is certainly considerable for the entire Italian ecosystem. Perhaps not fully understood by everyone, as innovation and start-ups remain a field that still does not attract much attention from the general public – that is, from the non-specialist media, with a few notable exceptions – nor from institutions, which still struggle to grasp the importance of supporting business innovation. Bending Spoons is worth over 18 billion dollars, whilst investment in start-ups in Italy over the past year stood at 1.7 billion euros. Admittedly, I’m comparing apples and oranges here, but it serves to give an idea of the forces at play and, above all, of the potential that could be realised if only more effort were put into it.
It therefore sounds so jarring that the day Bending Spoons makes its debut on the Nasdaq is the very same day that the Italian edition of Wired closes down for good; it grates that, on the one hand, the moment has finally arrived when national champions of innovation are beginning to make their mark and gain recognition on a global stage (before Bending Spoons, Genenta – now Saentra Forge – was listed on the Nasdaq, and the next to do so will most likely be Newcleo), whilst on the other hand attempts are being made to portray the Italian ecosystem as stunted and marginalised due to the reckless and short-sighted decisions of American publishers.
If we were to look for a rather amusing angle on this, given that Bending Spoons’ listing is taking place at the same time as the announcement of American Express’s intention to buy TheFork (fork), we might say that Italian innovation is setting the table for its future and that anyone genuinely interested in supporting it would do well to take a seat at the table – even if, and here the purists will grant me a touch of poetic licence, as TheFork is owned by TripAdvisor, it cannot be considered Italian; however, those familiar with the history know that the current management is the same team that founded Restopolis in Italy, which was indeed acquired by TripAdvisor in 2015, as we reported at the time, and that Restopolis’s CEO and co-founder, Almir Ambeskovic, remains the CEO of TheFork to this day.
In this context, it is now important to do two things: monitor and report on the direct and indirect effects that Bending Spoons’ listing will have on the ecosystem, and make the most of its impact to give a boost to the Italian ecosystem, both at an institutional and financial level and on the international stage. I am certain that for the four founders of the Milan-based company, knowing that their remarkable success story brings benefits, reputation and visibility to the rest of the ecosystem too can only be a further source of pride. (image taken from Bending Spoons’ X.com profile)
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