Bending Spoons & the New Software Empires

Not all software empires are built the same.

Bending Spoons represents a highly centralized product and technology operator. The company acquires established consumer and prosumer software brands, then integrates product, engineering, monetization, data and AI capabilities into a common operating model.

Constellation Software and Topicus represent a very different model. Their focus is vertical market software: specialized, often mission-critical products for specific industries. The operating logic is more decentralized, with autonomous groups acquiring and growing niche software companies over long periods.

saas.group sits closer to a SaaS house-of-brands model. It focuses on smaller, profitable SaaS businesses and keeps many products independent while adding shared expertise, operational support and long-term ownership.

Thoma Bravo represents the large-scale private equity consolidation model in software. Its focus is usually larger enterprise software platforms, with value creation driven by operational improvement, product focus, M&A and financial discipline.

Novacap is closer to mid-market technology and infrastructure buy-and-build. In this landscape, it shows how private equity-backed consolidation is also moving across AdTech, digital infrastructure and related software markets.

The common thread is acquisition-led growth.

The difference lies in what is acquired, how centrally the portfolio is operated, how long assets are held and whether the model is closer to a product operator, vertical software compounder, SaaS house of brands, private equity platform or infrastructure consolidator.

Together, these models point to a broader shift:

Software markets are no longer shaped only by startups building new products. They are increasingly shaped by owners and operators who acquire existing software assets and compound them over time.