Bending Spoons Buys Miro As SaaS Valuations Continue To Reset

by THEFUTURE.TEAM

September 10, 2026

Bending Spoons is buying Miro for $1.36 billion in cash, implying an equity value of $1.79 billion. That is about 90% below the workplace collaboration company’s $17.5 billion valuation in late 2021.

From Digital Whiteboard To AI Workspace

Founded in 2011 as RealtimeBoard, Miro began as a digital whiteboarding tool for remote teams. Demand surged during the pandemic, helping the company expand from about five million users to roughly 30 million between 2020 and 2022.

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Miro later added more than 250 integrations and partnerships with Atlassian, Cisco, Microsoft and Zoom. Today, it describes itself as an “AI innovation workspace,” offering AI assistants, prototyping tools and integrations with GitHub, Jira and Slack.

Growth Slowed After The Pandemic

Miro now has more than four million paying customers and 100 million total users, with about $600 million in annual recurring revenue. Businesses and enterprises generate roughly 90% of revenue, while the company has about $435 million in net cash and is profitable.

Its valuation decline reflects a broader reset in SaaS markets. As pandemic-driven demand faded, companies cut software spending and consolidated overlapping tools, increasing pressure on stand-alone collaboration platforms competing with broader ecosystems from companies such as Microsoft, Canva and Figma.

Bending Spoons Targets Mature Software

Miro has also reduced its workforce since reaching about 1,200 employees in 2022, cutting 119 positions in February 2023 and another 275 in October 2024, according to its CEO.

The acquisition fits Bending Spoons’ broader strategy of buying established software companies whose valuations have fallen but whose recurring revenue and user bases remain substantial. It previously agreed to acquire Airtable for $1.28 billion after the company had been valued above $11 billion in 2021.

For Bending Spoons, the strategy is a bet on durable revenue and profitability rather than the rapid-growth expectations that drove software valuations during the pandemic.

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Tern Wins $11.26 Million Army Contract For GPS Alternative

by THEFUTURE.TEAM

September 10, 2026

Austin-based startup Tern has secured an $11.26 million U.S. Army contract to deploy its navigation technology as the military seeks alternatives to GPS.

Under the agreement, the Army will use the system in vehicles, although Tern did not disclose the scale of the rollout. The company describes it as “Google Maps for the battlefield,” providing positioning and routing when GPS is unavailable, unreliable or compromised.

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GPS Disruptions Drive Demand

GPS interference has become increasingly common in conflict zones, including the Middle East and areas around Ukraine and Russia. Those risks have accelerated demand for navigation systems that can operate without satellite signals, while Congress and the Trump administration have also pushed for more resilient alternatives.

How Tern’s System Works

Tern’s technology uses data generated by modern vehicles rather than GPS signals. A device connects to the vehicle’s diagnostics board and sends data to a soldier’s tablet, which provides positioning, navigation and routing.

Co-founder and CEO Shaun Moore said the system passively reads the vehicle’s data and uses proprietary methods to produce navigation information. He declined to disclose the underlying technology.

Processing the data at the vehicle allows the system to determine its position when GPS is degraded, including in tunnels, deserts, off-road environments or areas affected by jamming and spoofing.

From Testing To Deployment

Co-founder Brett Harrison recently tested the system on a 1,300-mile drive from Austin to Laguna Beach, California. He said Tern maintained the vehicle’s position throughout the trip while conventional GPS repeatedly dropped out.

Harrison, a military veteran who served in Afghanistan with a special operations task force, said the company focused from the beginning on building technology that could be deployed and scaled in the field.

“From the very foundation of when we decided to embark upon this effort, we recognized it has to be actually deployable, actually scalable, and not a science project,” he said.

The Army contract moves Tern’s technology from testing toward operational use as GPS interference becomes a growing military concern.

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