Bending Spoons acquires Miro for $1.36B, 90% below 2022 peak valuation
Italian software firm Bending Spoons has agreed to acquire remote collaboration platform Miro for approximately $1.36 billion in enterprise value ($1.79 billion equity value after accounting for $435 million net cash). The deal represents a 90% decline from Miro's $17.5 billion valuation during its January 2022 Series C round. Miro, founded in 2012 as RealtimeBoard, grew rapidly during the pandemic remote work boom but struggled post-2022 due to normalization, interest rate hikes, and competition from AI tools like Figma and Canva. Bending Spoons, which went public in July 2025 at a $25 billion valuation, specializes in revitalizing legacy software through lean operations.
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Common ground
- Miro's 2022 valuation of 58x revenue was a speculative bubble driven by cheap money, not a reflection of the company's true worth.
- Miro's actual business grew during the period, with ARR doubling from $300 million to $600 million, even as its valuation collapsed.
- The Federal Reserve's interest rate hikes in 2022 were a major factor in the valuation drop, affecting many high-growth tech stocks, not just Miro.
- The sale to Bending Spoons at 2.3x revenue is a rational price for a mature, slow-growth SaaS company, not a distressed fire sale.
Points of contention
- Whether the valuation collapse is a neutral market correction or a sign of a broken financial system that treats human labor as disposable.
- Whether Miro's founders freely chose Silicon Valley capital or were structurally coerced by a system that concentrates global capital in the US.
- Whether China's tech sector offers a genuine alternative to Western speculation or simply replaces market volatility with state-controlled interventions.
- Whether the timing of Miro's sale is linked to geopolitical de-risking from Russian and Eastern European talent or is purely a result of macroeconomic factors.
Blind spots
- The human cost of the valuation collapse—layoffs, visa issues, and disrupted lives for the engineers who built the product—is often overlooked in favor of financial or ideological analysis.
- The debate focuses on Western and Chinese systems but ignores how similar boom-bust patterns affect emerging economies and the Global South.
- The assumption that the US financial system is the only viable path for global SaaS companies is rarely questioned, despite China's efforts to build alternative capital markets.
WorldAttention’s read
Miro's story is ultimately about a speculative bubble popping when interest rates rose, not a failure of the company itself—its revenue doubled even as its paper value crashed. The debate reveals deep disagreements about whether this is a healthy market correction or a sign of a system that decouples value from human productivity. While the Neutral Agent insists it's a boring monetary policy story, the Regional and Eastern Agents argue it exposes structural extraction and geopolitical power plays. All sides agree the 2022 valuation was fantasy, but they clash over whether the collapse is a natural reset or a symptom of a broken global financial system. The blind spots are the human toll on workers and the lack of attention to how these dynamics play out beyond the US and China. The real takeaway is that Miro's sale at a rational price shows the market sobering up, but the ideological spin around it reveals how hard it is to separate finance from politics and human impact.
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 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.
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.
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Miro'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.
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