Bending Spoons CEO: AI Writes 90% of Code, While Cheap SaaS Goes Under the Hammer

Luca Ferrari, CEO of Bending Spoons, calls the collapse in software valuations an opportunity, not a threat. In an interview with Tom Mackenzie for Bloomberg Tech: Europe, he explained that the "SaaSpocalypse", the sell-off of SaaS companies driven by fear of AI, works in his company's favor on two fronts. Acquisition targets get cheaper. And Bending Spoons itself, he says, uses AI to write at least 90% of its code.

A double benefit from the market drop

The logic is simple. The market fears that AI agents and generative models will undermine the traditional SaaS model: fewer paid seats, easier feature cloning, weaker customer retention. Multiples are compressing, and mature products with active user bases are going on sale at prices nobody talked about two or three years ago.

For a buyer that makes money by acquiring and reworking such products, these are nearly ideal conditions. That is exactly what Bending Spoons builds its business on: it takes established apps and services, rebuilds the product and the operations side, and raises efficiency. Based on public deals in recent years, its portfolio includes Evernote, Meetup, WeTransfer, as well as Vimeo and AOL.

The second half of Ferrari's argument concerns the process itself. AI helps write code, refine products and fold new assets into the company's machine faster. The less time goes into rewriting and maintenance, the more deals the company can absorb in a year.

90% of code: what it changes

The "at least 90%" figure sounds impressive, but it comes with caveats. Bloomberg's announcement does not disclose how the share is measured: by lines, by commits or by tasks, or how much time engineers spend on review. That question matters. Generated code still has to be reviewed, tested and maintained, and the real savings lie there, not in typing speed.

Still, the signal is important. A company that earns its living on operational efficiency says publicly that AI writes almost all of its code. For Bending Spoons this is not an experiment but part of the financial model.

Key figures and facts from the interview:

• share of code written by AI at Bending Spoons: at least 90%;
• there are two sources of benefit from the "SaaSpocalypse": cheaper targets and faster development;
• format: an episode of Bloomberg Tech: Europe, with Ferrari interviewed by Tom Mackenzie;
• AI is used to write code, improve products and scale the acquisition model.

What to watch next

This story matters beyond Bending Spoons. It shows how AI redistributes power in the software market. Those with capital and a well-tuned integration process get cheap assets and cheap development at the same time. Those whose product depends on seat counts and weak customer lock-in come under pressure from both sides.

In practice, this means a few things.

• SaaS founders should work out in advance how their valuation would hold up under AI pressure, and prepare an answer to a buyer's question: what is left if an agent can reproduce the product's features?
• Investors should watch how management reports the share of AI in development. A bare number without data on quality, bugs and release velocity says little.
• Engineering teams can learn from such companies: if a model writes 90% of the code, value shifts to architecture, tests and review.

Ferrari's claims will be tested by the next deals and by how quickly the acquired products change after integration. If AI really speeds up this work, the gap between Bending Spoons and traditional buyers will widen.