Bending Spoons to buy collaboration tools maker Miro for $1.36B, 90% less than its 2022 valuation

Bending Spoons is continuing its inclination of buying once-sought-after bundle companies for pennies connected the dollar. This time, the Italian institution is buying Miro for $1.36 cardinal successful currency (equity worth of $1.79 billion), a mighty dip successful valuation for the once-hot workplace collaboration startup that was awarded a terms tag of $17.5 cardinal successful precocious 2021.

Founded successful 2011 arsenic a whiteboarding instrumentality called RealtimeBoard, Miro recovered large luck during the COVID-19 pandemic, erstwhile companies moved to distant enactment en masse, and recovered their employees wanting to replicate the acquisition of collaborating connected a carnal whiteboard.

Miro rapidly capitalized connected that momentum by gathering a level that could integrate with much than 250 apps, and struck partnerships with Atlassian, Cisco, Microsoft, and Zoom. The institution besides started letting its users physique integrations with communal tools and customize the basal merchandise to conscionable their needs. Today, it calls itself an “AI innovation workspace” that offers AI assistants for its whiteboard tools, AI workflows, prototyping tools, and AI connectors that propulsion discourse from assorted platforms similar GitHub, Jira, and Slack.

By 2022, Miro had grown from 5 cardinal to astir 30 cardinal users wrong a scant 2 years, and its paying lawsuit basal had expanded by 550% — factors that apt contributed to its immense valuation astatine the time.

By each indications, the institution has continued growing, though not astatine that blistering pace. Today, Miro has much than 4 cardinal paying users and 100 cardinal full users. Bending Spoons said Miro present has astir $600 cardinal successful yearly recurring revenue, of which 90% comes from businesses and enterprises. The institution besides has astir $435 cardinal successful nett cash, and is profitable.

Still, the 92% dip successful Miro’s valuation is illustrative of conscionable however overmuch software-as-a-service (SaaS) multiples person unwound since its heydays of 2021. By 2022, the dying pandemic tailwinds spurred companies to tighten spending by cutting down connected duplicate apps and licenses. Miro, competing with much-better funded rivals specified arsenic Canva, Figma, and Microsoft successful the workplace collaboration space, apt recovered itself shoved speech arsenic businesses started preferring suites of assorted products alternatively of idiosyncratic collaboration tools.

Miro, which had astir 1,200 employees successful 2022, chopped jobs twice, laying disconnected 119 staff successful February 2023 and reportedly another 275 radical successful October 2024.

Bending Spoons, however, is astir apt blessed it is capable to drawback up a institution that’s been doing rather good for a smidgen of its former, arguably inflated, value. In that way, Miro is beauteous akin to Airtable, which was valued astatine implicit $11 cardinal successful the roar days of 2021, but sold to Bending Spoons for $1.28 cardinal past month.

The Italian serial acquirer of bundle companies seems to beryllium exploiting a circumstantial change: Large, recognizable SaaS companies that were priced successful 2021 arsenic if they’d go bundle giants, but matured into slower-growing but inactive important businesses with decent recurring gross and established idiosyncratic bases.

Still, it’s funny wherefore Miro’s committee and investors agreed to merchantability astatine that terms now, particularly seeing that the institution didn’t seemingly request the cash. Has assurance successful SaaS companies being capable to spell nationalist oregon find a comparable exit truly plummeted that low?