Deal analysis · estimated

Airtable × Bending Spoons: who got the money home

On August 4, 2026, Bending Spoons agreed to acquire Airtable at an enterprise value of $1.285bn — which, per the acquirer's own press release, implies an equity value of roughly $2.25bn once Airtable's unspent cash is counted. That second number is what shareholders actually split, and splitting it is where it gets interesting: Airtable raised $1.35bn, and most of it sat senior to the common stock.

The round history

From public reporting; * marks post-money values we estimated where none was disclosed.

The waterfall at ~$2.25bn

With standard 1x non-participating preferences, every investor class faces the same choice at exit: take your money back, or convert and share what's left. At this price, everyone from the Series C on does better taking the pref — that's $1.29bn off the top. The remaining ~$960m belongs to common holders and the converting early rounds.

• • Assuming the founders still held ~15% at exit, their combined take is roughly $190m (renormalized over converting holders — models that skip the renormalization land nearer $145m).
• • An assumed 12% employee pool takes home ~$150m.
• • The late-stage leads likely took ~par: the preference worked exactly as designed — but a 1x return is not the scenario anyone underwrote at an $11.7bn post-money.
• • The early money still won: seed investors ~42x, Series A ~17x, Series B ~6.3x on our estimates.

The part almost everyone missed

Thirteen days before the announcement, a brand-new entity called Formagrid Holdings LLC (Formagrid is Airtable's legal name) filed two SEC Form Ds — from Airtable's own headquarters at 1 Front Street, San Francisco, with Airtable's CFO listed, and the "business combination transaction" box ticked. The deal was visible in public filings nearly two weeks early. That's exactly what our deal radar watches for, every hour.