Bending Spoons paid 2.7x ARR for Airtable and 2.3x for Miro, SaaStr says
Bending Spoons paid 2.7 times ARR for Airtable and 2.3 times for Miro, signed 37 days apart, according to SaaStr. SaaStr calls it a likely caller for mid-sized B2B software companies, but two deals from one buyer are a thin benchmark.
The Investor · Invest desk
Per SaaStr, in Q2 Bending Spoons put 18.6% of revenue into sales and marketing plus R&D combined, while HubSpot and Datadog each put about 70% into the two lines combined.
Q2 sales and marketing plus R&D, combined, per SaaStr In % of revenue
| Item | Value | Claim |
|---|---|---|
| Bending Spoons | 18.6% of revenue | 3 |
| HubSpot, about | 70% of revenue | 3 |
| Datadog, about | 70% of revenue | 3 |
What happened
- Together the two deals bought $1.08 billion of ARR for $2.64 billion of enterprise value, SaaStr calculated.
- Airtable closed on September 4 and Miro was signed on September 10, inside the first 100 days or so of Bending Spoons being a public company.
- Second-quarter revenue rose 126% to $704 million, almost all of it bought, while organic growth was 3%, down from 6% in the first quarter.
- The stock fell 16%, from $48.98 to $40.92, the day after a full-year revenue guide of $2.78 billion to $2.82 billion landed below the $2.9 billion consensus.
Why it matters
- Who has to decide decision Boards of companies in that size and growth band now have a price to measure an offer against and a buyer to approach or rule out.
- What it limits constraint Buyers that spend far more on sales and R&D have less room to match these prices on the same revenue, so the pool of bidders at 2.7x is narrower than the pool of buyers.
- What doesn't add up contradiction SaaStr says Airtable's revenue is worth about four times as much inside Bending Spoons, then later about three times, and its own multiples span a wider range than either, so the size of the spread is soft.
- Who's exposed exposure A seller taking 2.7x is underwriting the buyer's own multiple, because the gap that makes the price attractive to Bending Spoons narrows if its shares keep falling.
Set against the buyer's own valuation, the prices carry a visible spread. SaaStr puts Bending Spoons at roughly 8x to 10x revenue with both deals included [16], and its rougher enterprise-value math at 7x to 8x pro forma revenue [17]. Divide either by the 2.7x paid for Airtable [1] and public investors value each dollar of that revenue at 2.6 to 3.7 times its purchase price [21]. The blended price across both deals is 2.44x [15].
The spread is real only if the buyer's cost structure travels with the revenue, and we think 2.7x is best understood as the price of the revenue after the cost base is cut. In the second quarter Bending Spoons spent 18.6% of revenue on sales and marketing plus R&D, against about 70% at each of HubSpot and Datadog [3], and R&D alone was $58 million, or 8.3% of revenue [4]. Airtable had 935 employees when it signed, more than the entire Bending Spoons core team [6]. At Tractive, the plan was to cut around 160 of roughly 300 jobs [5].
SaaStr's advice to anyone running a company at $300 million to $800 million in ARR growing under 25%, or sitting on its board, is that this is the buyer at least likely to call, even if it does fewer than 10 deals a year [22]. Apply 2.3x to $300 million and 2.7x to $800 million and the price runs from $690 million to $2.16 billion [23].
Growth looks like a weak screen, though. Airtable was growing more than 20% when it was bought [20]. CEO Luca Ferrari said on the call that the growth rate alone does not rule a target in or out: fast growers, slow growers, flat businesses and the odd shrinking one all qualify, provided the return clears the hurdle [11]. SaaStr's heading says a 25% hurdle rate gets to both prices [12]. The piece does not state Miro's growth rate.
We would be wrong about the benchmark if the stock's multiple fell toward the 2.3x to 2.7x it is paying, because the spread SaaStr describes would be gone. Debt is the other thing to track. Net debt was $4.09 billion, or 2.4x leverage, at June 30, before IPO proceeds [9], and on October 2 the company closed another $1.25 billion and 395 million euros of term loans [10]. Moody's and S&P have both upgraded it [10].
What to watch
- A third Bending Spoons deal in the $300 million to $800 million ARR band, and whether its multiple lands inside 2.3x to 2.7x; a price well above 2.7x would break the benchmark.
- Bending Spoons' share price against the 8x to 10x revenue multiple SaaStr cites, since compression toward the multiples it pays removes the spread.
- Any disclosure of headcount or cost plans at Airtable and Miro, compared with Airtable's 935 employees at signing.
Information, not investment advice. This story is general information about companies and markets, drawn from cited reporting. It is not a recommendation to buy, sell or hold any security; check the cited sources before acting.
Clarity's read
What the record supports and how the coverage leans. The claims behind it follow.
Reality
- Evidence55
- Adoption
- Insufficient
- Hype gap+20
- Incentives
- Insufficient
- Confidence50
Claim ledger
Ranked by verification strength, evidence, and original report placement.
- [1]
Bending Spoons paid 2.7x ARR for Airtable and 2.3x for Miro.
- [2]
The two deals total $1.08 billion of ARR for $2.64 billion of enterprise value, signed 37 days apart.
- [3]
In Q2, Bending Spoons put 18.6% of revenue into sales and marketing plus R&D combined; HubSpot and Datadog each put about 70% into the two lines combined.
- [4]
Bending Spoons spent $58 million on R&D in Q2, 8.3% of revenue.
- [5]
At Tractive, the plan was to cut around 160 of roughly 300 jobs.
- [6]
Airtable had 935 employees when it signed; the entire Bending Spoons core team is smaller than that.
- [7]
Q2 revenue was $704 million, up 126%, almost all inorganic; organic growth was 3%, down from 6% in Q1.
- [8]
The full-year revenue guide of $2.78 billion to $2.82 billion landed below the $2.9 billion consensus, and the stock fell 16% the next day, from $48.98 to $40.92.
- [9]
Net debt was $4.09 billion and leverage 2.4x at June 30, before the IPO proceeds.
- [10]
Moody's and S&P both upgraded Bending Spoons, and on October 2 it closed another $1.25 billion and 395 million euros of term loans.
- [11]
CEO Luca Ferrari said on the call that Bending Spoons will buy a business that is growing fast, growing slowly, flat, or occasionally shrinking, as long as the return clears the hurdle; he said organic growth is an output of where the capital goes and the company does not optimize for it.
- [12]
SaaStr's section heading says a 25% hurdle rate gets you to both the Airtable and Miro prices.
- [13]
Bending Spoons closed Airtable on September 4 and signed Miro on September 10.
- [14]
Bending Spoons has been public for a little over 100 days.
- [15]
The blended price across both deals is about 2.44x ARR.
- [16]
Bending Spoons' own stock trades at roughly 8x to 10x revenue with both deals included.
- [17]
At about $38 a share the equity is worth roughly $24 billion; adding net debt, SaaStr's rough math puts enterprise value at 7x to 8x pro forma revenue with Airtable and Miro included.
- [18]
SaaStr says a dollar of Airtable's revenue is worth about four times as much inside Bending Spoons as it was to Airtable's own shareholders.
- [19]
Later in the same piece SaaStr says public investors are paying about three times as much for a dollar of Airtable's revenue inside Bending Spoons as any bidder would pay Airtable's own shareholders.
- [20]
Airtable was growing more than 20% when Bending Spoons paid 2.7x for it.
- [21]
Dividing Bending Spoons' own 7x to 10x revenue multiples by the 2.7x paid for Airtable gives 2.6 to 3.7 times the purchase price per dollar of revenue.
- [22]
SaaStr says that if you run a company at $300M to $800M in ARR growing under 25%, or sit on its board, Bending Spoons is the buyer that is at least likely to call, even if it does only a handful of deals a year, fewer than 10.
- [23]
Applying 2.3x to $300 million of ARR and 2.7x to $800 million of ARR gives a price range of $690 million to $2.16 billion.
Get this ledger inside ChatGPT. Ask about any of our stories and the answer brings its figure, each claim’s verdict and the sources. Free, no account.
Sources
1 independent publisher whose own reporting we read for this story.
Topics and entities
Follow any of these and your For You feed starts watching them — no settings page required.
Topics
- Software M&AFollow
- SaaS Valuation MultiplesFollow