ByIain Martin,
Forbes Staff.
Luca Ferrari bought his first app back in 2014 for just $10,000 with the hope that he and his three cofounders in Milan-based startup Bending Spoons could turn it around. A decade later, Ferrari has become one of tech’s biggest dealmakers, and a new billionaire, after a new funding round valued his startup at more than $11 billion.
Forbes estimates that Ferrari’s stake in the startup, which is named after a scene from the Matrix movie, is worth $1.4 billion, while his cofounders Matteo Danieli, Luca Querella and Francesco Patarnello each hold a $1.3 billion stake based on shareholder data published by the Italian Business Register.
The valuation comes from Bending Spoon’s fresh funding round of $270 million from investors including T. Rowe Price and existing investors Baillie Gifford, Cox Enterprises, Durable Capital Partners and Fidelity. There was also a $440 million secondary share sale by existing shareholders in the company.
