From college pals to billionaires

FOUR former college friends who founded software rollup Bending Spoons SpA have emerged as Italy’s youngest cohort of self-made billionaires.

Matteo Danieli, Luca Ferrari, Francesco Patarnello and Luca Querella each have a net worth of more than US$2bil, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Their wealth is based on Bending Spoons’ trading debut on July 1, 2026, in New York in an initial public offering (IPO) valuing the Milan-based company at approximately US$18.4bil. 

The Italian quartet, all around the age of 40, created the business in 2013 after a first startup flopped. They’ve avoided the spotlight, steering clear of the tech conference circuit even after the company acquired well-known brands like Vimeo and AOL. Only Ferrari, who is chief executive officer (CEO) and chair, has given substantive interviews over the past decade. 

He told Bloomberg Businessweek that Bending Spoons was “like private equity had a baby with Google”. He has also said his ambition is to push the firm into the big league of tech conglomerates.

With sleek headquarters in Milan’s main business district, Bending Spoons has drawn in some well-known investors over the years, including celebrities Ryan Reynolds, Abel Tesfaye (known as the Weeknd), along with former tennis star Andre Agassi and Italian fashion mogul Renzo Rosso. Baillie Gifford and Galileo Quattordici, an investment fund based in Luxembourg, are also listed as shareholders with more than 5% holdings.

The billionaires join an emerging roster of other young, ultra-wealthy tech founders in Europe including Italy’s Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino, London-headquartered Revolut founder Nikolay Storonsky, both 41, as well as the three French founders of Mistral AI.

A spokesperson for Bending Spoons declined to comment on the founders’ wealth or minority investors other than those named in the IPO documents.  

Bending Spoons derives its name from a scene in the 1990s science-fiction film The Matrix and describes its employees as “Spooners”.

It applies a private equity playbook to software, buying up mostly fledgling subscription-based apps, slashing headcount and handing operations to its roster of Italian engineers. 

The company first appeared on the radar for many in Silicon Valley after buying Evernote, the popular note-taking app, in 2022, and has since acquired other large software firms, including public companies Vimeo and Brightcove.

In late 2025, Bending Spoons purchased AOL, the iconic dot-com brand that Ferrari described as an asset with valuable potential.

The firm has close links to Allen & Co, one of the bookrunners for its public listing. Ferrari has attended the bank’s exclusive event in Sun Valley, Idaho, and has previously said that he met some investors through its network. Leah Schwartz, a managing director at the bank, sits on the Bending Spoons board.

Bending Spoons has identified more than 1,000 digital businesses in Europe and North America that could be attractive acquisitions over the next few years, according to its listing document.

The Bending Spoons co-founders together hold 100% of the Class A shares and almost 83% of the voting rights.

The calculation of their net worth is based on assigning the preference shares the same value as the ordinary stock at the listing price of €29 a piece. 

This shows 41-year-old Ferrari has the most valuable holding at US$2.4bil. Non-executive director Danieli, who turns 42 in July, vice-chairman Patarnello, 40, who has served as head of business acquisitions, and Querella, 38, each have stakes worth US$2.2bil.

Danieli, Ferrari and Patarnello got their idea to start a business together back in 2010 while on a backpacking holiday in Lombok, Indonesia, to mark their graduation from engineering studies in Denmark, according to details contained in the listing document and in a panel discussion featuring Ferrari. Their self-writing diary called Evertale failed a couple of years later.

Out of the rubble came the idea for Bending Spoons, which they began with US$40,000 and an expanded team of five. That included Querella and Tomasz Greber, who isn’t listed as a shareholder.

The four Italians all hold Master of Science degrees in Telecommunications Engineering from the Technical University of Denmark and started Bending Spoons in Copenhagen.

They relocated to Italy because they were more familiar with its higher education system and talent recruitment environment, Ferrari has said, betting that success in a country lesser known for tech prowess would have a greater impact. 

Ferrari briefly worked as an associate at McKinsey & Co to help pay the bills for development of the first startup and rent for their shared living and workplace.

While calling that failure “painful”, he has said it proved the strength of the personal bond between them. 

The co-founder has also batted away criticism related to Bending Spoons’ practice of axing large numbers of employees at the apps it acquires, saying the method is a “means to the end” of improving performance. 

Seven months ago Ferrari told a panel discussion he believed artificial intelligence or AI company valuations have created a bubble and that “the vast majority” are worthless and will die, similar to what happened during the dot-com era. 

“It’s professional investors blowing their money,” he said.

“I don’t feel a lot of pity toward them, I guess they will learn their lessons.”

Ferrari has also said he was pathologically shy and introverted as a child and that learning to “accept disagreement” and annoy people is a trait he has had to pick up as a business leader. — Bloomberg