Evernote and Meetup's parent company, Bending Spoons, looks to IPO in the United States.

Italian mobile app company Bending Spoons, headquartered in Milan, may consider going public in North America. According to Reuters, Bending Spoons' portfolio of brands currently has over 200 million users and has recently acquired online note-taking software company Evernote and file transfer website WeTransfer.

The Story of Danish Company Bending Spoons

Bending Spoons was founded in Copenhagen, Denmark in 2013 and later moved its headquarters to Milan, Italy in 2015. The company was ranked as the best workplace for millennials for three consecutive years. In 2020, Bending Spoons developed an app called Immuni to track COVID-19 infections and contacts, which was officially designated by the Italian government.

Luca Ferrari, co-founder and CEO of Bending Spoons, mentioned in an interview with Forbes in 2019 that the company's name was inspired by the movie "The Matrix," where the protagonist bends a spoon with his mind, symbolizing the unlimited power of thoughts.

Bending Spoons has a strong team of angel investors, including hip-hop artist and producer The Weeknd, Hollywood star Bradley Cooper, tennis player Agassi, and former Google Chairman and CEO Eric Schmidt.

In February of this year, Bending Spoons raised $155 million in a new round of funding in Milan, boosting the company's valuation to $2.55 billion. New investors include Durable Capital, an investor in Duolingo, and Baillie Gifford, an investor in Amazon, making Bending Spoons a rare unicorn in the Italian startup scene.

Bending Spoons' portfolio of apps includes Evernote, Meetup, WeTransfer, Remini, Splice, and StreamYard.

Interestingly, how should Bending Spoons be positioned? Is it a tech startup or a private equity firm? Although they developed Immuni early on, their main products now come from acquiring existing products and services from other startups, turning into a startup without its own technology.

Luca Ferrari described Bending Spoons as a hybrid of Berkshire Hathaway and Google, with the capital allocation and technical operations that can revive older startups like Evernote.

After acquiring Evernote, Bending Spoons made bold moves by laying off almost all 250 employees of the U.S. and Chilean companies and moving the remaining business to Europe, increasing the annual fees for individual and professional plans to $129.99 and $169.99, respectively, making the streamlined Evernote profitable.

Following the acquisition of WeTransfer this year, Bending Spoons is also preparing to lay off 75% of the staff, retaining only a small core team.

Italian Unicorn Eyeing IPO Outside Europe

Luca Ferrari told Reuters that Bending Spoons, based in Milan, has faced many obstacles to going public, including funding and regulatory restrictions. He hopes to have an IPO in Italy, but if the policies remain unclear, they may look to expand into North America or other regions outside Europe.

Historically, private institutions and companies in Italy have been mainly family-run, lacking new systems to publicly raise funds and apply for listings, facing significant obstacles to public offerings. During the pandemic, several companies in Milan were acquired and then left Italy to go public elsewhere. Despite Ferrari's desire to stay and cultivate in Italy, they may have to move for a broader market.