Miro raised $400 million at a $17.5 billion valuation in January 2022. Earlier today it agreed to sell itself to Bending Spoons for $1.355 billion in enterprise value, roughly 2.3 times its annual recurring revenue. The buyer is two years younger than the company being acquired.

The filing puts Miro’s equity value at about $1.79 billion once net cash is added. Miro raised $476 million over its life, and its Series C drew ICONIQ Growth, Accel, Atlassian, Dragoneer, GIC, Salesforce Ventures and TCV. Deedy Das, Partner at Menlo Ventures, wrote on X that the price clears the preference stack , meaning investors recover their capital while late-stage returns collapse, and that employees who joined from 2021 onward are likely underwater on their options. Some Miro shareholders agreed to roll $295 million of proceeds into newly issued Bending Spoons stock, a signal that part of the cap table would rather own the acquirer than take cash at this price.

Bending Spoons agreed on August 4 to buy Airtable for $1.285 billion in enterprise value against roughly $480 million of ARR growing more than 20% a year, and that deal closed last week . Airtable had raised more than $1.4 billion and was valued above $11 billion in 2021. Its shares reportedly traded near $4 billion on secondary markets earlier this year. Two pandemic-era collaboration unicorns, two exits inside five weeks, both priced between 2.3 and 2.7 times revenue.

Miro’s fundamentals did not cause this. The company carries roughly $600 million in ARR, nearly 90% from business and enterprise customers, across more than 250,000 organizations and over 750 accounts paying above $100,000 a year. Its April 2020 Series B valued the business at $725 million ; the 2022 round marked it up 24 times in 21 months. The business did not shrink but he price did, because growth funds set the first number in a zero-rate market and a public acquirer with a cash flow model set the second.

Bending Spoons has the money and a documented method. The Milan company, itself only 13 years old, priced its Nasdaq IPO at $29 a share on July 1, raising $1.68 billion at an $18.4 billion valuation. Revenue grew from $387 million in 2023 to $1.31 billion in 2025. Weeks after listing, Italy’s export credit agency SACE backed a €500 million acquisition loan. The post-deal playbook involves reorganizing teams , overhauling technology and deep staff cuts , with layoffs at acquired companies often reaching 70% of headcount. The company says it has never sold a material business. Its 6-K lists employee retention as a disclosed risk of the Miro transaction and permits termination if the deal has not closed by September 10, 2027.

A $17.5 billion post-money round with standard 1x non-participating preferences means the last investors in are made whole first. Common stock and options priced off that valuation absorb the entire markdown. Das’s estimate that anyone hired from 2021 onward holds worthless options follows directly from the 409A valuations that would have tracked the Series C.

For founders running a 2021-vintage cap table, three moves matter. First, get a current 409A and reprice or replace underwater grants before any sale process, because a buyer that routinely cuts headcount will assume a mass exit of engineers and discount its bid accordingly. Second, model the preference waterfall at 2x, 3x and 5x ARR and put it in front of the board now; Airtable and Miro both cleared under 3x, so that is the base case rather than the downside. Third, decide whether a rollover into acquirer stock beats a clean sale; Miro’s $295 million reinvestment suggests its insiders concluded Bending Spoons equity was the better bet.

For late-stage investors, the lesson is about who controls the exit. Bending Spoons is a serial acquirer with public currency, a €500 million credit line and an appetite it has never hidden. Every collaboration, productivity and workflow company with flat growth and a 2021 valuation is now a candidate. Funds holding those positions should mark them to Airtable and Miro multiples rather than the last round, and should expect the next bids to come from roll-ups rather than strategics or the IPO window.

Bending Spoons will not stop at two. The open question for the rest of the SaaS cohort is whether they sell at 2.5 times ARR now or wait for the same buyer to offer less.