Bending Spoons agrees to acquire Airtable in an all-cash deal valuing the US software company at $1.285B, set to close by 2026's end, its first post-IPO deal

Bending Spoons (BSP.O) has agreed to buy Airtable in an all-cash deal valuing the U.S. software firm at $1.285 billion …

Reuters 2026-08-04

Context & Ripple Effects

Airtable’s agreed sale marks a sharp turn from its earlier fundraising arc, when it was reported to be pursuing more than $700 million at an $11.7 billion valuation in 2021 during its last major private funding push.

For Bending Spoons, Airtable extends an acquisition program that had already added Eventbrite after Vimeo and a pending AOL transaction in its recent run of internet-media and software deals. The transaction is its first reported deal after its Nasdaq IPO.

First-order effects

Airtable moves from independent ownership to Bending Spoons under a $1.285 billion all-cash agreement, subject to a closing targeted by the end of 2026.
Bending Spoons adds a cloud-collaboration product to a portfolio that already includes Vimeo, AOL and Evernote, while making its first reported post-IPO acquisition.

Second-order effects

Airtable customers, employees and partners will need to evaluate product continuity and operating priorities as control shifts to an owner with a record of acquiring established digital businesses.
The deal reinforces Bending Spoons as a credible buyer for mature software and internet assets, potentially increasing competitive pressure for other buyers pursuing similar acquisition targets.

Third-order effects

If Bending Spoons continues to pair public-market access with acquisitions, more standalone software products could be absorbed into diversified owner portfolios rather than remaining independent companies.
The gap between Airtable’s prior private-market fundraising valuation and this agreed purchase price underscores how later-stage software outcomes can be reset through M&A, not just follow-on funding.

The trend: This is part of a broader shift toward acquisition-led consolidation of established software and internet products by scaled, financially backed operators.

Discussion

@gergelyorosz Gergely Orosz on x
Got to feel for any current and past Airtable employees. Especially current ones. …
@gergelyorosz Gergely Orosz on x
Selling to Bending Spoons is an admission of defeat+wanting ANY kind of exit, knowing most staff will be let go after this Airtable raised $1.4B in funding. This exit most certainly means investors get some investment back: founders maybe something. Employees likely wiped out...
@austen Austen Allred on x
Whoa. Airtable raised $1.4 Billion. Didn't even clear the pref stack?
@itsurboyevan Evan Armstrong on x
WOW. Airtable agreeing to this price has to make legacy SaaS CEOs sick.
@quxiaoyin Xiaoyin Qu on x
is this a good outcome?
@sebjohnsonuk Seb Johnson on x
List of Bending Spoons acquisitions to date: Evernote Remini Splice Filmic Pro Komoot Vimeo Brightcove StreamYard Meetup WeTransfer Issuu Eventbrite AOL Harvest Tractive Mosaic Group Now airtable. Any that I have missed?
@deedydas Deedy on x
Wow. Airtable, founded in 2012 and once valued at $11.7B, is getting acquired by Bending Spoons, founded 2013, at 2.7x ARR. A once hot startup; now an unfortunate victim of the SaaS bust. It raised $1.4B only to be sold for $1.285B EV ($2.25B equity value), just clearing its pref…
@keshavtrehan Keshav on x
The death of a great product. We had a good run, Airtable🥲
@gulimoreno Guli Moreno on x
They just can't stop. What an epic run.
@fedesimio Federico Simionato on x
We've officially agreed to acquire Airtable for $1.285B! 😍 [image]
@beffjezos @beffjezos on x
It's over for SaaScels
@harrystebbings Harry Stebbings on x
Epic analysis as always here from Paul. Winners and losers from Airtable Acquisition. 👇
@p_bonnet Paul on x
AIRTABLE ACQUISITION: WHO GETS THE 💰 HOME // WHO GETS LEFT BEHIND? …
@quinnypig Corey Quinn on x
Area database company acquired by Bending Spoons.
@nrmehta Nick Mehta on x
Building an iconic $480M ARR business is incredibly hard and impressive. …
@elie2222 Elie Steinbock on x
This would make it into the “90% of startups that failed” myth. Don't worry about the founders. …
@averyalchek Avery on x
Hoping employees took liquidity off top at its peak (great reason for private market sales). Multiple compression hurts much more for privates
Marco Filocamo Marco Filocamo on linkedin
Breaking news: Bending Spoons has agreed to acquire Airtable for $1.285 billion 😮 — Back in 2022, a Hacker News comment highlighted one of the fundamental limits of the “Excel killer”: …
@anildash.com Anil Dash on bluesky
Terrible news, especially for their workers. Just a deeply disappointing ending for such a promising company. I hate this. [embedded post]
@bryce Bryce Roberts on x
Venture capital can be a cruel business. One minute your investment is a crowned a decacorn the next minute it's selling for parts. Hope everyone sold some secondary at $11B!
@itfchelp @itfchelp on x
🎟️ Supporters attending tonight's fixture against Le Havre are reminded to download their ticket before reaching the stadium. A video has been produced to assist supporters with this process. [video]
@matsonj Jacob Matson on x
Really interesting to see. Imo AI has taken the air out of the room on the “DIY internal tool” market - which includes stuff like Smartsheet (got taken private), retool, and a few others. OTOH it seems like others using interface are still scaling - Sigma, RowZero, and others
@restructuring__ @restructuring__ on x
Holy shit this is really bad (and honestly shocking) Airtable raised at $11.7B in December 2021 …
@toddsaunders Todd Saunders on x
Next up on the wishlist: Yelp Docusign Notion Carta
@denehyxxl Ryan Denehy on x
The point most founders should take away from this is that a ~$500M ARR co with a great product and a ton of cash that's only growing 20% is just not worth much.
@mikey_starts @mikey_starts on x
in 10 years, only hyperscalers & bending spoons will exist https://x.com/...
@trace_cohen Trace Cohen on x
$1.4B raised $11B valuation $480M rev growing 20% YoY $1.285B enterprise value $2.25B equity value $965M of net cash on its balance sheet. Usually 75%+ layoffs after acq.
@lylo Olly on x
More wild acquisitions from @bendingspoons who continue to hoover up failed unicorns, gutting most staff, sorting out pricing, to make the business profitable. Time for founders to start running their companies lean like this in the first place.
@pitdesi Sheel Mohnot on x
Bending Spoons is acquiring Airtable for $2.25B Airtable has $965M of cash, so the EV is $1.285B. Airtable had raised $1.35B of VC capital, last round Dec '21 at $11.7B. At ~$480M ARR growing 20%+ YoY, that's 2.7x ARR. Surprised they are selling with so much cash!
@arthaud_ Arthaud on x
next up: - snap - grammarly - skyscanner - degiro - bumble anyone found a prediction market for their next acquisition?
@jasonlk @jasonlk on x
The early investors in Airtable will make good money, some will see that as a takeaway. But they invested in 2013-2015 But ... what if the seed deal had happened today, at say $50m post after demo day? The returns might be more like 15x (or less?) for seed investors, after diluti…
@almostcmb Chris Brown on x
Howie and team built an incredible product and business. Airtable was an absolute world …
@jaredsleeper Jared Sleeper on x
Thoughts on Airtable: 1) $480m ARR growing 20%, unicorn exit, many very satisfied customers (including me for years!). Fantastic run. 2) Never underestimate how much VCs love products that make “everyone a builder.” The wrinkle is that one-player products are high churn. 3)
@carnage4life Dare Obasanjo on bluesky
Bending Spoons is acquiring Airtable in a deal valuing the company at about $2.25B. A shock given it raised $1.4B and was valued at $11.7B in 2021. — They built a good business but at $480M ARR that was insufficient to justify the huge valuation as they never became a ubiquito…
@jason @jason on x
Credit to @bendingspoons for having the 🏀 🏀 to pull off these deals when no one else …
Federico Simionato Federico Simionato on linkedin
We've officially agreed to acquire Airtable for $1.285B! 😍
@ed3d.net @ed3d.net on bluesky
just yesterday I told somebody about airtable and that it was great for knocking out one-offs. welp — @tilmonedwards.com time to update recommendations [embedded post]
@daniloc.xyz @daniloc.xyz on bluesky
Airtable should have taken over the world. so many of the problems caused by spreadsheets were elegantly solved by Airtable's combination of tight schemas and user-friendliness. but I think deep down, none of them understood what they'd actually built. — bsky.app/profile/tech..…
@noahjnelson.com @noahjnelson.com on bluesky
RIP AirTable. — Which really sucks as AirTable is far better than it has any right to be. [embedded post]
@cara.city @cara.city on bluesky
welp there goes my equity lol [embedded post]
@tanayj Tanay Jaipuria on x
Airtable was at $480M in ARR growing 20% y/y implying the Bending Spoons paid 2.7x ARR for it. Interestingly, per SEC filings the HyperAgent business line (Airtable's AI agent product) was transferred to a separate entity prior to the acquisition and is excluded from the transact…
@willchen500 @willchen500 on x
Airtable just got sold for 1/10 of its last valuation which was 11+ billion. I use it on one of my sites but even I have no idea why it exists.
@pkafka Peter Kafka on x
Back when Airtable had VC money to spend I'm pretty sure I read at least one podcast ad for them. Thank you for your service, Airtable VCs.
@benioff Marc Benioff on x
Wow. Incredible entrepreneur @howietl and the entire Airtable team building another cool product used by so many companies. And sobering reality check on 2021 peak VC valuations. Congrats Howie! https://techcrunch.com/...
@marell_evans Marell Evans on x
I took a quick look at every investor that wrote a meaningful check into Airtable at a $1B+ valuation. The outcome is a reminder that even the best funds can overpay for great companies. You don't build a generational firm without taking a few painful L's.
@jsyversen Jason Syversen on x
Not surprised by this. There are a lot of massively overvalued companies out there. Airtable is a giant fancy spreadsheet/website platform. Not innovating, overpriced, buggy. Calendly is gonna go this same way. (Even more overvalued IMHO.) Many others like them.
@amix3k Amir Salihefendić on x
Creating more than $2 billion in value is framed as a failure, with the company cast as an “unfortunate victim” A great example of playing stupid games and winning stupid prizes. I'm so glad Todoist isn't part of this! Play your own infinite game. Set your own rules. It's far mor…
@bryce Bryce Roberts on x
The upside for Airtable's VCs- by playing the markup game, they were able to raise 1, maybe 2, funds on the Airtable markups alone...
@the_zack_zhu Zack Zhu on x
The Airtable situation is a manifest that tech companies should deserve much lower valuation than traditional industry if given a similar growth and profitability. Tech companies future value can be wipe out at anytime. The moat hasn't been test through time. I had a lot of respe…
@jspujji Jesse Pujji on x
Raise venture, they said. Build a unicorn, they advised. Change the world, they shouted! …
@ronaldmannak Ronald Mannak on x
Yikes. The deal isn't as disastrous as it first seems: Airtable still has nearly $1 billion in cash. But it's hard to imagine the former Silicon Valley darling didn't reject far better acquisition offers over the years. Employees better start looking for new jobs since Bending Sp…
@austen Austen Allred on x
Honest question: How much of PE exists because it gives a kinder explanation to why a company is laying off 75% of its staff?
@chat_sbc @chat_sbc on x
this is just a toxic mindset that is reflective of grifting in SV $500mm revenue with good unit economics is excellent and a sustainable business But gets no credit bc 20% growth So founders try to pump up narratives and juice growth 1000% and sell secondary shares before the dec…
@peterj_walker Peter Walker on x
Every time you post about VC metrics, someone will inevitably say “only thing that matters is DPI”. Yes. You're right. But DPI often takes 12, 13, 15 years to show up. So in the intervening years, ppl look at different metrics 🤷
@michaelmiraflor Michael J. Miraflor on x
Founders were at it for 14 years. Along w/ everything else. I'm thinking that they just wanted to get out at this point. Every year working on SaaS and not AI was money on the table for them (esp after their Airtable AI product didn't really stick). They had the cash pile to try …
@amandaorson Amanda Orson on x
Don't think this is a “SaaS bust” story. Airtable @ ~$480M ARR growing 20%+ YoY is a very good business. …
@asanwal Anand Sanwal on x
🎯🎯 Airtable sold for $1.285B Less than the amount it raised Called this 3 yrs ago I remember @Jason calling this prediction out on his pod for shoddy analysis. Math don't lie cc @CBinsights
@mattwensing Matt Wensing on x
Better lesson: don't raise $1.4B to do $500M ARR.
@forgebitz Klaas on x
still think airtable did a massive fumble in the ai era just look at platforms like clay, the idea of ai + structured data in simple tables [image]
@matthartman Matt Hartman on x
Wow @bendingspoons buying @airtable for $1.28 bn of enterprise value (reportedly $2.25 incl cash …
@kieranwgoodwin Kieran Goodwin on x
2.7x ARR .. wonder if PC will consider this data point when marking loans
@harrymccracken.com Harry McCracken on bluesky
Fingers crossed this isn't bad news for people who use Airtable, such as me. In particular, I'd like to see the product continue to evolve and improve. https://techcrunch.com/2026/08/04/ bending-spoons-to-buy-airtable-for-1- 28b/
@alexrkonrad Alex Konrad on x
Everyone is a M&A expert today. But if your hot take on Bending Spoons acquiring Airtable doesn't factor in that it spun out the AI unit, Hyperagent, it's missing key pieces of the puzzle. Could be where execs and top engineers go, and changes the math on their exit value👇
@_abhixyz Abhi on x
Before the purchase agreement was signed, assets and liabilities related to the “Hyperagent” business line were transferred from Airtable to a separate Delaware corporation called Hyperagent Inc Source: Form 6-K filed by Bending Spoons [image]
@zachtratar Zach Tratar on x
I met a lot of the Airtable exec team 9 months ago. They were offering to acquire Embra at the time. They were honest about their position and seemed tired. Negative dollar retention and slowing, already low growth. “Save the company” vibes. Selling is emotional.
@aftd.dev Andrew F on bluesky
This is sad but also, Airtable's “unsubscribe from these marketing messages” functionality doesn't work unless you escalate to their legal team, and somehow this all feels related. [embedded post]

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