Startups

Bending Spoons to Buy Airtable for $1.285 Billion in First Post-IPO Deal

The Milan-based acquirer values the no-code workflow platform at roughly a quarter of its 2021 peak, in an all-cash transaction that also implies a $2.25 billion equity value.

By Giulia Donatello · Startups & funding · 2026-08-08 · 3 min read

Photo: Unsplash / Mika Baumeister — A laptop screen showing rows of spreadsheet data on a desk.

Bending Spoons agreed on Tuesday to acquire Airtable for a $1.285 billion enterprise value in an all-cash deal, implying roughly $2.25 billion in equity value once Airtable’s net cash is added in. It’s the Milan-based acquirer’s first announced purchase since its July 1 Nasdaq debut, and it prices the no-code workflow platform at close to a quarter of the $11 billion-plus valuation it commanded at its 2021 peak.

The gap between those two numbers is the story.

Airtable raised more than $1.4 billion across multiple rounds on the way up. Earlier in 2026, secondary-market trades had already reset the mark to roughly $4 billion, and Bending Spoons is now settling the round-trip at a lower level still. The fundamentals aren’t the problem: ARR sits at approximately $480 million as of June, growing over 20% year over year, with more than 500,000 organizations on the platform and 80% of the Fortune 100 among them. What’s being repriced is the 2021 vintage itself, the era when no-code was a category rather than a feature.

Bending Spoons has built its playbook around exactly that gap. The Evernote, WeTransfer, Vimeo, Brightcove and Remini portfolio was assembled the same way: buy discounted software assets, trim staff, streamline the product, run for profitability. AOL closed in January, Eventbrite in March. The company went public at an $18 billion valuation, and shares closed Monday at $36.22, well above the $29 IPO price. That currency is now doing work.

Airtable co-founder and CEO Howie Liu framed the sale as an infrastructure upgrade, citing “the resources and the long-term commitment” needed to build an AI-native platform. The company unveiled Superagent, an orchestration product for spinning up teams of AI agents, in January. Reading Liu’s language against the price tells you how the AI transition is actually being financed inside the last software cycle’s mid-tier: through consolidation, at a discount, into balance sheets that can absorb the build.

Latham & Watkins is advising Airtable on legal matters, with AXOM Partners as financial advisor. The transaction is expected to close by the end of 2026, subject to regulatory approval.

Sources