After being bootstrapped for almost a decade, Bending Spoons raises €355.6M from Ryan Reynolds, others

Milan-based Bending Spoons, one of the biggest mobile app developers in the world, announced on Tuesday, September 27, that it has raised $340M (approximately €355.6M) in a fresh round of funding.

The investment came from Canadian-American actor Ryan Reynolds’ Maximum Effort Holdings, Creator Partners, and other leading names in technology, business, media, entertainment, and sport, as well as marquee Italian institutions, such as Banco BPM and Intesa Sanpaolo, Italy’s leading banking group.

Ryan Reynolds says, “I’m excited about what Bending Spoons is building in the creator economy. Their apps enable anyone to become a creative genius with minimum effort. In fact, their products terrify me so much, I had to invest.”

What does Bending Spoons offer?

Bending Spoons claims that it is at the forefront of developing the next phase of the creative economy. Founded in 2013, the company provides its suite of mobile apps to about 500 million users worldwide.

Over 90 million content creators utilise Bending Spoons’ creator-centric mobile apps each month. The suite, which consists of apps that power photo, video, motion graphics, and typography, is the largest collection of mobile-first creative apps currently available, and it caters to all user experience levels. 

Bending Spoons provides creative tools for every need, from Splice – the video editor that enables visual storytelling for millions, to Remini – an image editor built on AI technology that enables users to repair and improve billions of images.

Luca Ferrari, CEO and co-founder of Bending Spoons, says, “Our mission at Bending Spoons is to make an enduring positive impact on our customers, on our teammates, and on society at large. And building tools to help creators develop wonderful content that reaches billions of people each month is an important step in this direction.”

Capital utilisation

Surpassing $100M in annual revenue and bootstrapped for almost a decade, the capital marks the first time Bending Spoons has decided to raise such major financing. The proceeds from this round will be used to accelerate innovations in product development, help expand marketing efforts, and fund new acquisitions.

Co-founder Luca Ferrari says, “It’s awesome that the Bending Spoons mission resonates so strongly with Ryan, Kerry, and all our investors. Their support makes us even more excited about what the future of Bending Spoons—and the products we build—will look like.”