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Two Thousand Five Hundred Opportunities, Six DealsNarrow moat

Bending Spoons (BSP) — moat facet

Bending Spoons looked at two and a half thousand businesses in 2025 and bought six, and the ones it refused are the better evidence of discipline.

The first discipline in this company is saying no. In 2025 Bending Spoons sourced over 2,500 acquisition opportunities, conducted in-depth analyses of approximately 200 of them, and completed six acquisitions1. Most of the 2,500 were rejected for being below its preferred revenue range2, which is a size filter rather than a quality judgment.

The 2025 acquisition funnel2,500+opportunities sourced~200analysed in depth6acquisitions completed50+completed since 2013Bending Spoons Form 424B4 prospectus, Business
Six out of two and a half thousand.

What it wants is unusual and the filing lists it: a digital business with a large revenue base, because the effort required to transform a business does not appear to scale linearly with the business's revenue3; predictable earnings with strong customer retention; customer acquisition not highly dependent on paid advertising; many years of customer data; and significant room for improvement4. Nothing on that list is about growth.

The assumptions come before the answer. The company says it does not run simulations, or review the resulting projections, until the assumptions are finalized5, which it describes as a guard against adjusting assumptions upward to justify a price. Assumptions span dozens of dimensions and are typically expressed as probability distributions6.

The pace has been one acquisition in 2023, five in 2024, six in 2025 and two in the first quarter of 2026, from more than 50 since 20137. Two years had none, the most recent being 2020, when the team built a contact-tracing application for the Italian government instead8.

The pre-closing work is not light. A task force assembled before a deal generally comprises dozens of Spooners9, and after closing the first priority is meeting the acquired team, often through individual conversations with most members of the organization10, including to provide emotional and logistical support to those who may be impacted by a workforce reduction11. The scale of that effort is why Spooner capacity, not money, has been the binding constraint on the deal count.

A funnel this selective can only be judged by what came out of it, and the outputs are not reported separately. Watch the count of completed deals against the money spent on them: six acquisitions in 2025 cost $1.92 billion of enterprise value, and two in the first quarter of 2026 cost $2.01 billion12. If the count keeps falling while the spend keeps rising, selectivity has turned into scarcity.

Moat trajectory: Holding steady

Funnel wide; six deals in 2025, two in Q1 2026 at twice the money.

The number that tests this moat
Reported
Acquisitions completed, per year
6 in 2025, from more than 2,500 opportunities sourced

The output of the funnel; a falling count on rising spend would mean the filter has become a shortage.

Source: Bending Spoons Form 424B4 prospectus ↗
⚠ Threats to the moat
⚠ THREAT 01
The Retrospectives Stay Inside the Company
The company grades its own acquisitions against its pre-closing assumptions and has never published a single result.
References
  1. ReportedIn 2025 Bending Spoons sourced over 2,500 acquisition opportunities, conducted in-depth analyses of approximately 200 of them, and completed six acquisitions.
    Bending Spoons S.p.A. Form 424B4, the final initial-public-offering prospectus dated 30 June 2026 - the master document, covering the business, the Playbook, the Platform, the audited financial statements for 2023-2025, the Q1 2026 interim, the acquisitions, customers, risk factors and legal proceedings - the letter from the team and the Business section on the Playbook, return hurdles and acquisition criteria. — FY2023-Q1 2026 · publ. 1 July 2026 · source ↗
  2. ReportedMost of the 2,500 were rejected for being below its preferred revenue range, which is a size filter rather than a quality judgment.
    Bending Spoons S.p.A. Form 424B4, the final initial-public-offering prospectus dated 30 June 2026 - the master document, covering the business, the Playbook, the Platform, the audited financial statements for 2023-2025, the Q1 2026 interim, the acquisitions, customers, risk factors and legal proceedings - the audited consolidated financial statements, the Q1 2026 interim and the MD&A on results of operations and tax. — FY2023-Q1 2026 · publ. 1 July 2026 · source ↗
  3. ReportedWhat it wants is unusual and the filing lists it: a digital business with a large revenue base, because the effort required to transform a business does not appear to scale linearly with the business's revenue; predictable earnings with strong customer retention; customer acquisition not highly dependent on paid advertising; many years of customer data; and significant room for improvement.
    Bending Spoons S.p.A. Form 424B4, the final initial-public-offering prospectus dated 30 June 2026 - the master document, covering the business, the Playbook, the Platform, the audited financial statements for 2023-2025, the Q1 2026 interim, the acquisitions, customers, risk factors and legal proceedings - the letter from the team and the Business section on the Playbook, return hurdles and acquisition criteria. — FY2023-Q1 2026 · publ. 1 July 2026 · source ↗
  4. ReportedWhat it wants is unusual and the filing lists it: a digital business with a large revenue base, because the effort required to transform a business does not appear to scale linearly with the business's revenue; predictable earnings with strong customer retention; customer acquisition not highly dependent on paid advertising; many years of customer data; and significant room for improvement.
    Bending Spoons S.p.A. Form 424B4, the final initial-public-offering prospectus dated 30 June 2026 - the master document, covering the business, the Playbook, the Platform, the audited financial statements for 2023-2025, the Q1 2026 interim, the acquisitions, customers, risk factors and legal proceedings - the letter from the team and the Business section on the Playbook, return hurdles and acquisition criteria. — FY2023-Q1 2026 · publ. 1 July 2026 · source ↗
  5. ReportedThe company says it does not run simulations, or review the resulting projections, until the assumptions are finalized, which it describes as a guard against adjusting assumptions upward to justify a price.
    Bending Spoons S.p.A. Form 424B4, the final initial-public-offering prospectus dated 30 June 2026 - the master document, covering the business, the Playbook, the Platform, the audited financial statements for 2023-2025, the Q1 2026 interim, the acquisitions, customers, risk factors and legal proceedings - the letter from the team and the Business section on the Playbook, return hurdles and acquisition criteria. — FY2023-Q1 2026 · publ. 1 July 2026 · source ↗
  6. ReportedAssumptions span dozens of dimensions and are typically expressed as probability distributions.
    Bending Spoons S.p.A. Form 424B4, the final initial-public-offering prospectus dated 30 June 2026 - the master document, covering the business, the Playbook, the Platform, the audited financial statements for 2023-2025, the Q1 2026 interim, the acquisitions, customers, risk factors and legal proceedings - the letter from the team and the Business section on the Playbook, return hurdles and acquisition criteria. — FY2023-Q1 2026 · publ. 1 July 2026 · source ↗
  7. ReportedThe pace has been one acquisition in 2023, five in 2024, six in 2025 and two in the first quarter of 2026, from more than 50 since 2013.
    Bending Spoons S.p.A. Form 424B4, the final initial-public-offering prospectus dated 30 June 2026 - the master document, covering the business, the Playbook, the Platform, the audited financial statements for 2023-2025, the Q1 2026 interim, the acquisitions, customers, risk factors and legal proceedings - Note 5 business combinations, the acquisition history and the pro-forma financial information. — FY2023-Q1 2026 · publ. 1 July 2026 · source ↗
  8. ReportedTwo years had none, the most recent being 2020, when the team built a contact-tracing application for the Italian government instead.
    Bending Spoons S.p.A. Form 424B4, the final initial-public-offering prospectus dated 30 June 2026 - the master document, covering the business, the Playbook, the Platform, the audited financial statements for 2023-2025, the Q1 2026 interim, the acquisitions, customers, risk factors and legal proceedings - the letter from the team and the Business section on the Playbook, return hurdles and acquisition criteria. — FY2023-Q1 2026 · publ. 1 July 2026 · source ↗
  9. ReportedA task force assembled before a deal generally comprises dozens of Spooners, and after closing the first priority is meeting the acquired team, often through individual conversations with most members of the organization, including to provide emotional and logistical support to those who may be impacted by a workforce reduction.
    Bending Spoons S.p.A. Form 424B4, the final initial-public-offering prospectus dated 30 June 2026 - the master document, covering the business, the Playbook, the Platform, the audited financial statements for 2023-2025, the Q1 2026 interim, the acquisitions, customers, risk factors and legal proceedings - the letter from the team and the Business section on the Playbook, return hurdles and acquisition criteria. — FY2023-Q1 2026 · publ. 1 July 2026 · source ↗
  10. ReportedA task force assembled before a deal generally comprises dozens of Spooners, and after closing the first priority is meeting the acquired team, often through individual conversations with most members of the organization, including to provide emotional and logistical support to those who may be impacted by a workforce reduction.
    Bending Spoons S.p.A. Form 424B4, the final initial-public-offering prospectus dated 30 June 2026 - the master document, covering the business, the Playbook, the Platform, the audited financial statements for 2023-2025, the Q1 2026 interim, the acquisitions, customers, risk factors and legal proceedings - the letter from the team and the Business section on the Playbook, return hurdles and acquisition criteria. — FY2023-Q1 2026 · publ. 1 July 2026 · source ↗
  11. ReportedA task force assembled before a deal generally comprises dozens of Spooners, and after closing the first priority is meeting the acquired team, often through individual conversations with most members of the organization, including to provide emotional and logistical support to those who may be impacted by a workforce reduction.
    Bending Spoons S.p.A. Form 424B4, the final initial-public-offering prospectus dated 30 June 2026 - the master document, covering the business, the Playbook, the Platform, the audited financial statements for 2023-2025, the Q1 2026 interim, the acquisitions, customers, risk factors and legal proceedings - the letter from the team and the Business section on the Playbook, return hurdles and acquisition criteria. — FY2023-Q1 2026 · publ. 1 July 2026 · source ↗
  12. ReportedWatch the count of completed deals against the money spent on them: six acquisitions in 2025 cost $1.92 billion of enterprise value, and two in the first quarter of 2026 cost $2.01 billion.
    Bending Spoons S.p.A. Form 424B4, the final initial-public-offering prospectus dated 30 June 2026 - the master document, covering the business, the Playbook, the Platform, the audited financial statements for 2023-2025, the Q1 2026 interim, the acquisitions, customers, risk factors and legal proceedings - Note 5 business combinations, the acquisition history and the pro-forma financial information. — FY2023-Q1 2026 · publ. 1 July 2026 · source ↗
Sources
Generated October 20, 2026