Bending Spoons acquires Miro for $1.36B, 90% below 2022 peak valuation of $17.5B
Italian software firm Bending Spoons has agreed to acquire remote collaboration platform Miro for approximately $1.36 billion in enterprise value, or $1.79 billion in equity value after accounting for Miro's $435 million net cash. The deal represents a 90% decline from Miro's $17.5 billion valuation in its January 2022 Series C round. Miro, founded in 2012 as a real-time whiteboard for designers, grew rapidly during the pandemic remote work boom but later faced growth stagnation due to post-pandemic normalization, rising interest rates, and competition from AI tools like Figma and Canva. Bending Spoons, which went public in July 2025 at a $25 billion valuation, specializes in acquiring and revitalizing legacy software companies through lean operations and product improvements.
IllustrationEditorial responsibility
- No named human review is recorded for this page.
- Reports are grouped by semantic similarity and deterministic rules. Language models may assist titles, summaries, translation and cross-source analysis; the page reads the event directly, while its address stays stable when the title changes.
- Summary covers the current reports
Cross-source coverage
Common ground
- Miro's 58x revenue multiple in 2022 was irrational and unsustainable.
- The pandemic created a temporary demand spike for collaboration software that was mistaken for permanent growth.
- Miro's management made poor capital allocation decisions, like doubling headcount and signing a big lease after the pandemic peak.
- The collapse is part of a broader pattern seen in other pandemic beneficiaries like Zoom, Peloton, and DocuSign.
- The human cost—employees with worthless stock options—matters and shouldn't be ignored.
Points of contention
- Whether Miro's collapse is a sector-specific correction or a systemic failure of Western finance.
- Whether the Chinese model of state-guided capital allocation is superior or just a different form of elite control.
- Whether the Fed's monetary policy is the root cause or just a background condition for bad business decisions.
- Whether Miro's founders had real alternatives to the Silicon Valley playbook or were forced into it by global power dynamics.
- Whether the debate should focus on competing economic models or on who technology serves in local communities.
Blind spots
- All sides used Miro as a proxy for pre-existing worldviews rather than analyzing its specific mistakes.
- The debate ignored how technology built for local resilience—like mesh networks or open-source tools—offers alternatives to both Western and Chinese models.
- No one fully addressed why similar software companies like Salesforce avoided a 90% collapse despite being in the same sector.
- The human cost was mentioned but not deeply explored in terms of how employees in different regions were affected differently.
WorldAttention’s read
Miro's collapse from $17.5 billion to $1.79 billion is best understood as a sector-specific correction driven by pandemic pull-forward demand and poor management decisions, not as a systemic indictment of Western capitalism or a validation of Chinese state guidance. While the Fed's cheap money policy and Silicon Valley's growth-at-all-costs culture created the conditions for irrational valuations, the core failure was Miro's leadership mistaking a temporary spike for permanent demand. The debate revealed how each participant used Miro as a Rorschach test for their preferred economic model, missing the real lesson: sometimes a company just makes bad bets at the wrong time. The more important question—who technology serves and how it can be built for local needs rather than global speculation—was largely overlooked.
Reporting timeline
Unicorn Valued at $117 Billion Sold for $9 Billion: Miro's 90% Valuation Collapse
This article from Tencent Finance analyzes the dramatic fall of Miro, a remote collaboration platform that was once valued at $17.5 billion (117 billion yuan) during the 2021 venture capital boom. In 2026, Miro is being acquired by Italian software firm Bending Spoons for approximately $1.36 billion in enterprise value, representing a 90% drop from its peak valuation. The article attributes Miro's rise to the 2020-2021 era of loose monetary policy and remote work demand, which inflated its valuation to 58 times revenue. Its decline is linked to the end of the pandemic boom, the rise of AI tools like Figma and Canva, and overexpansion. Bending Spoons, described as a software industry 'Prometheus Project,' specializes in acquiring and revitalizing legacy software companies, having successfully turned around Evernote and Remini. The acquisition is framed as a test of whether human-led operational improvements can revive companies disrupted by AI, contrasting with Jeff Bezos's $700 billion AI-focused fund.
Read sourceUnicorn Valued at $117 Billion Sold for $9 Billion: Miro's 90% Valuation Collapse
This article from Tencent Finance analyzes the dramatic fall of Miro, a remote collaboration platform once valued at $17.5 billion (117 billion yuan) in a 2022 funding round, which is now being acquired by Bending Spoons for an enterprise value of approximately $1.36 billion (equity value $1.79 billion). The report attributes Miro's rise to the 2021 era of loose monetary policy ('easy money') that inflated startup valuations, and its subsequent collapse to the end of that era, the rise of AI tools like GPT, and competition from Figma and Canva. Miro's valuation dropped 90% in four years. The article also profiles the acquirer, Bending Spoons, an Italian software firm that specializes in buying and revitalizing 'old software companies' through lean teams and product improvements, not necessarily AI. Bending Spoons' successful IPO in July 2025 is cited as evidence that AI is not the only path to growth. The acquisition is framed as a test of whether human-led, non-AI-centric turnaround strategies can succeed against major technological shifts.
Read sourceMiro acquired for $1.36B, 90% below 2022 peak valuation of $17.5B
Tech company Bending Spoons announced it will acquire remote collaboration platform Miro for approximately $1.36 billion enterprise value, or $1.79 billion equity value after accounting for Miro's $435 million net cash. This represents a 90% decline from Miro's $17.5 billion valuation in its January 2022 Series C round. The article attributes Miro's rise to the 2021 dollar liquidity boom that inflated startup valuations, and its fall to the subsequent capital winter, the rise of AI tools like Figma and Canva, and overexpansion. Miro, founded in 2012 as RealtimeBoard, grew rapidly during the pandemic but struggled after 2022. Bending Spoons, an Italian software acquirer that went public in July 2025 at a $25 billion valuation, specializes in reviving legacy software companies through lean operations and product improvements rather than AI alone. The acquisition is framed as a test of whether human-led operational turnaround can succeed against AI-driven disruption.
Show 3 older updatesHide older updates
Bending Spoons acquires Miro for $1.36B, 90% below 2022 peak valuation
Italian software acquirer Bending Spoons announced the acquisition of remote collaboration platform Miro for approximately $1.36 billion in enterprise value, or $1.79 billion equity value after accounting for Miro's $435 million net cash. The deal represents a 90% valuation collapse from Miro's $17.5 billion peak valuation during its January 2022 Series C round, which was fueled by the 2021 dollar liquidity surge. Miro, founded in 2012 as a real-time whiteboard for designers, grew rapidly during the pandemic remote work boom, reaching 30 million users and $300 million revenue by early 2022. However, post-pandemic normalization, interest rate hikes, and competition from tools like Figma and Canva led to layoffs and stagnation. Bending Spoons, which went public in July 2025 at a $25 billion valuation, specializes in acquiring and revitalizing legacy software companies through lean operations and product improvements, having previously turned around Evernote and Remini. The acquisition price of $1.36 billion represents just 2.3 times Miro's current $600 million annual recurring revenue.
Read sourceMiro's valuation plunges 90% in 4 years, sold for $1.79 billion to Bending Spoons
Miro, a remote collaboration platform once valued at $17.5 billion in 2022, has been acquired by Italian software firm Bending Spoons for approximately $1.79 billion in equity value, representing a 90% valuation decline. The article attributes Miro's rise to the 2021 'easy money' era and pandemic-driven demand for remote work tools, which inflated its valuation to 58 times revenue. However, post-pandemic normalization, the end of loose monetary policy, and the rise of AI tools like Figma and Canva led to a sharp downturn. Miro's ARR is now about $600 million, and the acquisition price is 2.3 times that. Bending Spoons, known for reviving legacy software like Evernote and Remini, plans to apply its playbook of lean teams and product improvements to restore Miro's growth. The author frames this as a test of whether human-led operational efficiency can succeed against AI disruption.
Miro acquired for $1.36B, 90% below 2022 peak valuation of $17.5B
Italian tech firm Bending Spoons has agreed to acquire remote collaboration platform Miro for approximately $1.36 billion in enterprise value, or $1.79 billion in equity value after accounting for Miro's $435 million net cash. The deal represents a 90% decline from Miro's $17.5 billion valuation in its January 2022 Series C round, making it a stark example of the post-pandemic correction in software valuations. Miro, founded in 2012 as a real-time whiteboard for designers, benefited enormously from the 2020-2021 remote work boom and loose monetary policy, growing users from 200,000 in 2018 to 30 million by early 2022. However, after the end of pandemic restrictions, rising interest rates, and competition from tools like Figma and Canva, Miro's growth stalled. The company laid off staff in 2023 and 2024, and its annual recurring revenue reached about $600 million by the time of acquisition. Bending Spoons, which went public in July 2025 at a $25 billion valuation, specializes in acquiring and revitalizing legacy software companies through lean operations and product improvements rather than heavy AI investment. The article presents the acquisition as a test case for whether traditional software turnaround strategies can succeed in an AI-dominated era.
Read source