Airtable is cutting a large portion of the roughly 800 employees it had before Milan-based Bending Spoons agreed to acquire the San Francisco software company for $1.3 billion on August 4, 2026. The acquisition closed on September 4, 2026. Alessandro Savarese, who joined Airtable in September 2026 to lead product development, told staff the company is “parting ways with a large portion of the pre-acquisition team, who will be leaving by the end of the week with substantial separation packages,” according to San Francisco Chronicle.
Airtable, which was founded in 2013 and makes software that blends spreadsheet and database functions to let companies build apps and manage workflows without traditional coding, has not disclosed the exact number of jobs being eliminated. The cuts come roughly a month after the acquisition closed on September 4, 2026. Savarese said the departures are not a reflection of the work those employees did, and that Airtable plans to carry forward many of the projects they built.
A Prior Airtable Layoff
California Employment Development Department records list a separate permanent layoff of 111 Airtable employees in San Francisco, with a notice date of Dec. 8, 2022, and an effective date of Dec. 15, 2022, according to the California Employment Development Department.
A Pattern Bending Spoons Has Repeated Before
Bending Spoons prefers smaller teams with streamlined responsibilities, and the Chronicle reports it transferred experienced engineers, product managers and designers into Airtable even as it trims the broader staff. The firm has also expanded its portfolio: it agreed in September 2026 to buy digital whiteboard platform Miro for $1.355 billion in enterprise value.
Bending Spoons completed its own initial public offering on Nasdaq under the ticker BSP on July 1, 2026, at an $18.4 billion valuation, making the Airtable deal its first major acquisition as a publicly traded company, as Quartz reported. That timing matters because it puts Airtable's restructuring under the scrutiny of public markets rather than private venture backers.
From $11.7 Billion Peak to a Fraction of That Value
Airtable's sale price marks a steep fall from its high-water mark. The company hit an $11.7 billion valuation in December 2021 after a $735 million Series F round. The Bending Spoons deal's $1.285 billion enterprise value is roughly 89% below that peak, while its $2.25 billion equity value is roughly 80% below it. Airtable had raised about $1.36 billion in venture funding over its history, a sum that actually exceeds the eventual sale price, according to the research compiled around Quartz's reporting.
The deal's effect on employee stock-option holders remains unclear because Airtable has not disclosed its preference terms.
Despite the Cuts, Airtable Points to Growth
Despite the Cuts, Airtable Points to Growth Airtable maintains the business itself remains healthy. At the time of the acquisition, the company reported roughly $480 million in annual recurring revenue, growing more than 20% year-over-year, and served more than 500,000 organizations including 80% of Fortune 100 companies, as reported by Bending Spoons. Savarese said customers' plans, prices and service offerings will not change, and that Airtable is reorganizing around smaller teams and a more focused product strategy with continued investment in core software, artificial intelligence and enterprise controls.
Airtable is prioritizing artificial intelligence going forward, with plans to roll out an upgraded version of Omni, its built-in AI assistant, in the coming weeks. The company also plans to release Airtable Canvas, designed to let users build custom apps on their data, and to offer options for customers to bring their own AI agents and keys, alongside planned improvements to automations, forms, collaboration with people outside a customer's organization, and connections with other tools.
A team internally known as the Speedy Squad has already released more than 30 improvements in three weeks, including higher automation limits, a delete-record action for automations, and more granular editing permissions on list pages, the Chronicle reported. That squad will become part of Airtable's new core team, which will be led by longtime Airtable employee Akshar Patel.
The layoffs land amid a broader wave of tech job cuts: Workday, Microsoft, Apple and Amazon have all cut workers in the past two months, per the Chronicle's reporting. For San Francisco's tech workforce, Airtable's restructuring adds another name to that list, even as the company insists its product roadmap and customer commitments remain unchanged.
