Startup Valuation Reset: Miro Sells at 92% Discount

The Italian software buyer Bending Spoons will pay $1.36 billion in cash for collaboration software maker Miro, TechCrunch reported on September 10. Miro carried a $17.5 billion price tag after a 2021 round. That puts the cash price roughly 92% below the old mark, which makes this the clearest startup valuation comparable of the year.

The size of that gap is the real story, and it has little to do with Miro specifically. It shows what the 2021 funding class is actually worth in 2026, which matters to every founder whose last priced round closed inside that window. If you are modeling a raise or an exit right now, this deal hands you a real comparable instead of a hopeful one.

The Numbers Behind the Miro Deal

Miro is not a broken company. Bending Spoons put recurring revenue at roughly $600 million a year, with about 90% of that coming from business and enterprise accounts. The company also holds around $435 million in net cash, and it turns a profit.

Growth simply slowed from its pandemic pace. Miro launched in 2011 as a whiteboarding product called RealtimeBoard, then rode the remote work scramble from five million users to roughly 30 million within two years. Paid accounts now number above four million, inside a registered base of 100 million.

Read that table as a before and after picture of software pricing rather than a verdict on the product. The revenue is real. The 2021 multiple was not.

Why a Profitable Company Still Sold Low

Two forces squeezed Miro at the same time. Companies cut duplicate software licenses as pandemic tailwinds faded, and buyers started favoring bundled suites over standalone tools. Miro competed for that shrinking budget against Canva, Figma, and Microsoft, all of them better capitalized.

Headcount tells the same story. Miro employed about 1,200 people in 2022, then cut 119 jobs in early 2023 and roughly 275 more in late 2024. The company kept selling, but it stopped compounding the way its valuation had assumed.

Bending Spoons has turned this pattern into a habit. It agreed to buy Airtable for $1.28 billion last month, down from a 2021 valuation above $11 billion. Founders studying why startups fail should notice that Miro did neither, and still sold at a steep discount.

What a Markdown Costs Your Cap Table

Here is how to think about it. A high headline valuation is a promise about future growth, and preferred shareholders hold liquidation preferences that get paid before common stock. When an exit lands below the last round, that stack decides who actually sees money.

Founders and employees hold common shares, so they sit last in line. A 92% markdown does not spread evenly across a cap table, because it concentrates at the bottom. That is why a modest round at a defensible price usually beats a large round at an inflated one.

Option holders feel it first. Strike prices set against a 2021 valuation can sit above what the shares are now worth, which makes retention grants awkward and exercise decisions painful. Raise repricing with your counsel before a deal is on the table, not during one.

How to Price Your Next Round Honestly

Start with revenue quality instead of revenue size. Miro held up because 90% of its $600 million in recurring revenue came from businesses that renew, and that mix is what made the company attractive at any price. Enterprise-weighted revenue survives a multiple contraction far better than consumer churn does.

Then build your floor. Cash on hand buys the right to say no, and Miro’s $435 million balance is part of why it could negotiate rather than scramble. Check how venture capital funds are pricing fresh bets in your category before you anchor on your own last round.

Finally, write down the number you would accept today, and show it to your board. Founders who model only the optimistic case tend to discover their real floor in a room full of lawyers.

Signals Worth Tracking Into 2027

Watch whether more companies from the 2021 vintage choose a discounted sale over waiting for public markets. Miro did not need the cash, so its board’s decision is the most interesting data point in the whole deal. Boards sell early when they stop believing a better exit is coming.

Watch the top of the market for contrast, too. The Perplexity AI valuation discussions show that capital still chases frontier stories at high prices, so this is a repricing of mature software rather than a general freeze.

Miro now markets itself as an AI workspace, and its product pages lean hard on assistants and connectors. Whether that positioning lifts the multiple under new ownership is the next question worth following.

Startup Valuation Questions Founders Ask

What is a valuation reset?

It is a drop in what investors will pay per share, usually because comparable multiples fell across a category. A business can keep growing while its price falls.

Does a low exit price mean the company failed?

No. Miro was profitable when it agreed to sell, and its recurring revenue ran at roughly $600 million a year.

How should founders value a startup in 2026?

Anchor on recent transactions in your category and on the quality of your recurring revenue, not on a 2021 round from your own cap table.