Airtable
The no-code database darling valued at $11B in 2021 — sold to Italy's Bending Spoons for $1.28B in 2026 despite $480M in growing ARR, a valuation unwind that became the SaaS era's cautionary tale.
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- Location
- San Francisco, California, United States
- Country
- United States
- Industry
- No-code software / collaboration
- Founded
- 2013
- CEO
- Howie Liu
- Total raised
- $1.4+ billion
- Peak valuation
- $11+ billion (2021)
- 2026 ARR
- ~$480 million (+20% YoY, June 2026)
- Customers
- 500,000+ organizations, including 80% of the Fortune 100
- Acquired by
- Bending Spoons, $1.28B cash, agreed August 2026, completed September 2026
Overview
Airtable is the cautionary tale of the 2021 SaaS boom: a San Francisco no-code database company founded in 2013 that fused spreadsheets with relational databases, raised more than $1.4 billion, peaked at an $11 billion-plus valuation — and was then sold for $1.28 billion in cash to Italian serial acquirer Bending Spoons in 2026 (TechCrunch). The deal, agreed in August and completed in September, was the first acquisition Bending Spoons made after its July 2026 Nasdaq IPO (FastForward).
The math of the unwind
The headline is the price, not the business. As of June 2026, Airtable had roughly $480 million in annual recurring revenue, growing more than 20% year over year, serving over 500,000 organizations including 80% of the Fortune 100 (TechCrunch). Earlier in 2026 its shares traded on secondary markets at about a $4 billion valuation; with net cash, the equity value at sale was about $2.25 billion. Roughly 2.7x ARR for a healthy, growing, widely deployed product — an 88% fall from the 2021 peak. The market did not change its mind about Airtable; it changed its mind about what recurring revenue is worth.
Airtable saw the AI wave coming: in January 2026 it unveiled Superagent, an orchestration platform for spinning up teams of AI agents to do tasks (TechCrunch). CEO Howie Liu was positioning the company for the agent era — but the company was sold before it could prove the bet.
The buyer and its playbook
Bending Spoons is the Milan-based company that went public on the Nasdaq at an $18 billion valuation in July 2026 (pricing at $29 a share, raising $1.68 billion, ~$18.4 billion at pricing) after building a 50-company portfolio — Evernote, WeTransfer, Vimeo, Eventbrite, AOL — from distressed or plateaued software brands (FastForward; TechCrunch). Its playbook, per TechCrunch: buy companies trading at steep discounts to private valuations, trim staff, streamline products, and run them profitably (TechCrunch). At Evernote the workforce went from 341 to 60; at WeTransfer a plan to cut roughly 75% of staff was announced in 2024 (FastForward). Weeks after Airtable, Bending Spoons agreed to buy Miro for $1.36 billion in cash (equity value $1.79 billion) — a ~92% dip from the $17.5 billion price tag the workplace-collaboration startup carried in late 2021 — confirming the fire-sale consolidation pattern (TechCrunch).
What this profile does not claim
This profile does not claim the Airtable product will be cut or shut down under Bending Spoons — the buyer’s efficiency history is documented, but no such plan for Airtable has been reported in the cited sources. The 2.7x ARR multiple is arithmetic on reported figures, not an independently stated deal metric. Founders’ names are not stated in the cited sources.
Timeline
- 2013
- Airtable is founded in San Francisco, building a platform that combines spreadsheets with relational databases for no-code applications.
- 2021
- Valued at over $11 billion during the SaaS boom after raising more than $1.4 billion across funding rounds.
- 2026
- Launches the Superagent product line — an orchestration platform for spinning up teams of AI agents — in January.
- 2026
- Bending Spoons agrees to buy Airtable for $1.28 billion in cash in August (equity value ~$2.25 billion with net cash), completing the deal in September.
What we could not verify
These claims came up in research and could not be confirmed. They are recorded here rather than published as fact or quietly dropped. If you hold a source that settles one, please tell us.
- The enterprise-value figure is $1.28–1.285 billion depending on the source; the equity value including net cash is ~$2.25 billion.
- Founders' names are not stated in the cited sources; TechCrunch names CEO Howie Liu.
- The "spreadsheet-database hybrid" characterization is the standard independent description of the product.
Sources
3 sources (2 tier 2, 1 tier 3), each opened and read against the claim it supports. Every source is independent of the subject; no first-party material is cited. See the source policy.
Built from sources fetched and read in full: TechCrunch (tier2) for the acquisition details, financials and product facts, and FastForward (tier2/3) for the buyer's IPO and operating playbook. Wikipedia was used only as a lead index and is not cited. No first-party sources were used.
- Supports: $1.28B cash acquisition agreed; founded 2013; raised $1.4B+; peak $11B+ in 2021; secondary-market ~$4B in early 2026; equity value ~$2.25B with net cash; ARR ~$480M (+20% YoY) June 2026; 500k organizations incl. 80% Fortune 100; Superagent AI product line January 2026; CEO Howie Liu; Bending Spoons $18B July IPO; buyer's discount-and-efficiency playbook; Evernote, WeTransfer, EventBrite, Vimeo portfolio Open original source
- Bending Spoons to buy collaboration tools maker Miro for $1.36B, 90% less than its 2022 valuation Tier 2Supports: Miro $1.36B cash deal ($1.79B equity), $17.5B late-2021 price tag, ~92% valuation dip, $600M ARR with 90% from businesses/enterprises, "buying once-sought-after software companies for pennies on the dollar" consolidation pattern Open original source
- Supports: Airtable acquisition completed September 2026; Miro agreement September 2026; Bending Spoons $18.4B Nasdaq IPO July 2026 at $29/share raising $1.68B; 2025 revenue $1.31B; Evernote workforce cuts 341→60 and WeTransfer 75% cut as the acquirer's operating pattern; ~50-company portfolio; 500M+ monthly active users Open original source
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