Miro Valuation and Revenue: How Miro Grew to 100M+ Users

Miro grew by making collaboration part of its distribution.

One person created a board and invited coworkers or clients. Those people used Miro before they had chosen to buy it. Some later created their own boards and invited more people. As use spread inside a company, Miro's sales team could offer paid plans, security, admin controls, and support to an account that already knew the product.

Freemium made this loop easy to start. Templates helped new users get value from a blank canvas. Consultants carried Miro from one client to the next. Integrations placed it inside tools such as Jira, Slack, and Google Docs. When the pandemic made remote work urgent, Miro already had a growth system ready to scale.

The result was rapid growth:

• 2 million users in November 2018
• more than 5 million users and 20,000 paying customers in April 2020
• 10 million users in November 2020
• 30 million users and 130,000 paying customers in January 2022
• more than 100 million users, nearly 4 million paying users, and around $600 million in annual recurring revenue by September 2026

The latest figures come from Miro and Bending Spoons. They describe total users, paying users, customer organizations, and ARR. These are different measures and should not be treated as monthly active users or annual revenue.

Miro's growth in one table

1. Miro began with a problem the founders knew well

Andrey Khusid and Oleg Shardin started a design agency in Perm, Russia, in 2005. Their team often worked with clients who were somewhere else.

A physical whiteboard worked when everyone was in one room. Email and calls did not preserve the sketches, notes, and half-formed ideas behind a design. Khusid later told Intercom that the agency kept running into the same problem: it was hard to communicate visual ideas to remote clients.

The founders began building RealtimeBoard in 2011. The idea was simple: put a shared whiteboard in a browser.

That choice removed two limits of a physical board. The canvas could be infinite, and anyone with access could join from anywhere. Teams could add notes, drawings, images, comments, and documents to one shared space.

The early users were a good fit for the product. Product managers, designers, agile coaches, and consultants already worked through visual exercises. They did not need to learn why a whiteboard was useful. They only needed a better way to use one with a remote team.

This gave Miro a narrow entry point into a much larger market. It started with remote visual work, then expanded into product planning, research, workshops, diagrams, strategy, and other team workflows.

2. The product's activation loop also acquired new users

Miro focused activation on two actions:

1. Create something useful.
2. Invite someone to work on it.

Khusid described these as Miro's two main activation steps. The company tried to help a new user get value within the first 90 seconds.

The second action was also distribution.

A product manager might create a retrospective and invite engineers. A designer might share research with a client. A consultant might run a workshop for a new company. Each invitation gave another person a reason to enter Miro and experience the product in the context of real work.

The loop looked like this:

Create a useful board → invite coworkers or clients → collaborate → invite more people → start more boards

This was stronger than a referral program. The user did not invite people to earn a reward. They invited them because the board became more useful when other people joined.

Miro tracked this behavior. Its growth teams studied activation, engagement, referrals, and conversion. The company's north-star metric became active collaborative boards because it measured whether people were creating something and using it together.

3. Team subscriptions made the business model fit the product

RealtimeBoard first sold personal subscriptions. Around 2015, it changed to team subscriptions.

Khusid said the move became a major growth driver. The team had watched Slack spread inside companies and saw that collaboration software worked better when the team, rather than one person, became the account.

The change aligned three things:

• People used the product with a group.
• The group could upgrade together.
• Revenue grew as more members joined.

It also gave Miro a path from one user to a larger account. A single employee could introduce the product, a team could adopt it, and the company could later buy it for more people.

4. Freemium gave the viral loop time to work

Miro's earlier model used a 30-day trial and limited sharing to three people. The deadline did not match how teams adopted the product.

Yuliya Malysh, who led Miro's self-service growth, said the company saw users deleting boards so they could keep working on the free plan. Many teams had found value but were not ready to buy when the trial ended.

Miro replaced the timed trial with a lasting free plan. Users could invite an unlimited number of people, while the free workspace limited the number of active editable boards.

This changed the order of events:

Before: start trial → face deadline → decide whether to buy

After: start free → create board → invite team → build a habit → pay when the limit matters

The free plan let value and internal adoption grow before procurement entered the process. A board could spread through a team without a sales call or credit card.

By November 2018, RealtimeBoard reported 2 million users and about 100 enterprise deployments. The company raised a $25 million Series A to build its sales, marketing, and community teams.

5. Templates solved the blank-page problem

An infinite canvas is flexible, but a blank canvas can be hard to start.

Miro used templates to show people what to do next. A new user could open a retrospective, customer journey map, business model canvas, workshop, or project plan instead of designing a board from scratch.

Templates helped growth in three ways:

• They reduced the time it took to reach a useful result.
• They taught new users what Miro could do.
• They created landing pages for specific jobs people wanted to complete.

The third point matters. Many people were not searching for an "online whiteboard." They were searching for a retrospective template, a customer journey map, a mind map, or a business model canvas. Each use case gave Miro another way to be discovered and another reason to try the product.

In May 2020, Miro launched Miroverse, a public gallery of community-made templates. It began with boards from 50 power users. Consultants, teams, and experts could publish the methods they already used. Other users could copy them with a few clicks.

This created another loop:

Experts publish workflows → users copy them → more people discover Miro → new experts publish more workflows

Miro later described Miroverse as a self-sustaining community growth engine.

Turning your setup problem into search traffic

If new users stall at a blank screen or a setup step, content that gets them past it can also bring in new users, the way Miro's templates did. Okara's SEO Agent finds the template and use-case searches in your category, and the Writer Agent drafts the pages.

6. Consultants carried Miro between companies

Consultants were especially valuable users because each project could introduce Miro to another client.

Miro noticed this behavior and built for it. It offered a consultant plan that kept client work separate. It created a directory where consultants could promote their services. It also shared their templates and stories with the community.

This helped both sides. Consultants got a tool for remote workshops and a way to find clients. Miro got distribution, education, and new use cases from people who already knew how to run visual sessions.

A normal employee might introduce Miro to one company. A consultant could introduce it to many.

7. Integrations made Miro easier to adopt and harder to remove

Miro did not ask teams to replace their whole software stack. It connected the canvas to tools they already used.

By 2018, RealtimeBoard integrated with products including Google Docs, Slack, Jira, Trello, Dropbox, Office 365, and Sketch. Some connections worked in both directions. A Jira card could stay connected to a planning board, for example.

Miro then opened its developer platform. Companies could build private plugins, embed a board inside another product, or adapt Miro to their own work. Khusid said customers had built 200 private plugins while the platform was still in private beta.

By January 2022, Miro reported more than 100 integrations and nearly 1,000 templates.

Integrations reduced switching costs during adoption because Miro could sit beside the tools a company already trusted. Over time, the connections also made Miro part of the workflow rather than a separate whiteboard used once.

8. Product use became the lead source for enterprise sales

Freemium helped Miro enter companies from the bottom up. Enterprise sales helped it expand from a few teams to a larger contract.

Miro called this a B2C2B model:

Individual user → team adoption → company purchase

The sales team did not have to start every conversation with a cold account. It could find companies where employees were already using Miro.

Miro called many of these prospects "hand-raisers." Some asked for help. Others showed signs that the account was ready for wider adoption. Miro built Product Qualified Account models to judge when an account was mature enough for outreach.

Sales could then offer what a large company needed: central billing, security, admin controls, governance, support, and wider rollout.

This produced an integrated growth model:

Product creates adoption → usage data reveals demand → sales expands the account → customer success drives wider use

In a 2023 interview, Khusid said most of Miro's business came from people who had already adopted the product and were ready to discuss the next stage.

9. COVID accelerated a system that already worked

The pandemic was a major growth event for Miro, but it did not create the business.

In April 2020, Miro reported more than 5 million users, 20,000 paying customers, and profitability. It also said 80% of Fortune 100 companies used the product.

When offices closed, teams lost access to meeting rooms and physical whiteboards. Remote brainstorming, planning, teaching, and workshops became urgent. Miro was built for that exact problem.

By November 2020, Miro had passed 10 million users. The company called this nearly 300% growth since March 1.

In January 2022, Miro raised $400 million at a $17.5 billion post-money valuation. Since its April 2020 funding round, it had grown:

• Users from 5 million to 30 million, a 500% increase
• Paying customers from 20,000 to 130,000, a 550% increase
• Fortune 100 adoption from 80% to a reported 99%

Miro also had 20 Fortune 100 customers with contracts worth more than $1 million in annual recurring value.

COVID increased the size and urgency of Miro's market. The product, free plan, invite loop, and bottom-up sales motion were already in place.

10. Miro expanded beyond online whiteboards

RealtimeBoard became Miro in March 2019. The old name described a feature. The new name gave the company room to own a broader category: visual collaboration.

That expansion helped Miro spread across departments. Designers could use it for research. Product teams could plan roadmaps. Engineers could draw systems. Marketers could run workshops. Leaders could map strategy.

Miro later added docs, tables, project spaces, diagrams, prototypes, and AI tools. In 2024, it began calling the product an Innovation Workspace. By 2026, it described Miro as an AI-first workspace where teams and AI could plan and build together.

The wider product increased the number of jobs Miro could serve inside one account. It also brought Miro into competition with more tools. Expansion created more room for growth, but it made the product and its market more complex.

Miro's full growth flywheel

Miro's growth can be reduced to one loop:

Template, consultant, or existing user brings someone in → new user creates a useful board → user invites coworkers or clients → collaboration creates value → more boards and teams appear → Miro identifies a growing account → sales converts it to a paid company plan → more teams get access → more invitations and templates bring in new users

The important part is that acquisition, activation, engagement, and expansion were connected. The action that made the product valuable also helped distribute it.

What drove Miro's growth most?

In order of importance:

1. Built-in product virality. Collaboration required inviting other people.
2. Freemium. Teams could experience value before making a buying decision.
3. Team-based pricing. The account and revenue model matched how the product spread.
4. Bottom-up enterprise sales. Miro sold to companies where demand already existed.
5. COVID and remote work. A long-term shift became urgent almost overnight.
6. Templates and Miroverse. These reduced time to value and turned expert knowledge into reusable content.
7. Consultants. Power users carried Miro from one client to another.
8. Integrations. Miro became part of the existing work stack.
9. Category expansion. The product grew from a whiteboard into a wider workspace.

What founders can learn from Miro

Make the core action spread the product

Miro did not add sharing after the product was finished. Sharing was part of the job. The best growth loop often comes from the action users already need to take.

Match pricing to how value grows

Personal subscriptions fought against team collaboration. Team plans made adoption and payment follow the same unit.

Give adoption enough time

A 30-day deadline was too short for a team to build a habit and make a company purchase. Freemium let Miro prove its value before asking for money.

Remove the empty-state problem

Templates turned an open-ended canvas into a clear first step. Flexible products need strong examples, defaults, and starting points.

Follow the users who distribute for you

Miro saw consultants bringing the product into client work and built a plan, directory, and community around them. The company supported a behavior that was already happening.

Use product signals to guide sales

Miro's sales team focused on accounts with real use. That made sales an extension of product-led growth rather than a separate motion.

Prepare before the market accelerates

Miro could benefit from remote work because it had spent years building the product and its growth loops. The pandemic amplified existing product-market fit.

The acquisition put Miro's valuation in perspective

On September 10, 2026, Bending Spoons signed an agreement to acquire Miro.

The deal values Miro at an enterprise value of $1.355 billion. Miro's net cash brings the implied equity value to about $1.79 billion, subject to adjustments at closing. That equity value is roughly 90% below Miro's $17.5 billion financing valuation from 2022.

The transaction was expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2026, subject to regulatory approval and other conditions. As of this article's September 12 update, the deal had been announced but had not closed.

At the time of the announcement, the companies reported:

• More than 100 million total users
• Nearly 4 million paying users
• More than 250,000 customer organizations
• More than 750 customers contributing over $100,000 in ARR each
• Around $600 million in total ARR
• Nearly 90% of ARR from business and enterprise customers

These figures show that Miro built a large subscription business. They also show why growth and valuation should be kept separate. A company can keep adding users and revenue while the price investors are willing to pay for each dollar of growth falls.

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Frequently asked questions

How did Miro grow?

Miro grew through product-led growth. A free user created a board, invited coworkers or clients, and introduced them to the product through real work. Templates made it easier to start. Consultants and integrations expanded distribution. Miro then used product activity to find companies ready for paid plans and enterprise sales.

Did COVID cause Miro's growth?

COVID greatly accelerated Miro, but it did not create its growth model. Before the pandemic, Miro already had more than 5 million users, 20,000 paying customers, a free plan, team subscriptions, integrations, and a built-in invite loop.

When was Miro founded?

Andrey Khusid and Oleg Shardin founded the product as RealtimeBoard in 2011. It was renamed Miro in March 2019.

How many users does Miro have?

Miro and Bending Spoons reported more than 100 million users in September 2026. This is a company-supplied total user count, not a disclosed monthly active user figure.

How much revenue does Miro make?

Bending Spoons reported that Miro had around $600 million in annual recurring revenue in September 2026. ARR is a subscription run rate and is not the same as recognized annual revenue.

How does Miro make money?

Miro sells paid team and enterprise access. Larger customers also pay for company-wide security, administration, governance, support, and deployment. In September 2026, the company said nearly 90% of ARR came from business and enterprise customers.

Was Miro acquired?

Bending Spoons agreed to acquire Miro on September 10, 2026. The deal had not closed as of September 12, 2026, and remained subject to regulatory approval and other conditions.

What is Miro's valuation?

Miro was valued at $17.5 billion when it raised $400 million in January 2022. When Bending Spoons agreed to acquire Miro on September 10, 2026, the equity value was roughly 90% below that 2022 valuation.

Sources

• Miro's Andrey Khusid on the art of distributed teamwork, Intercom, January 2020
• Miro's “Play as a team to win the world” approach to explosive growth, Breakout Growth, 2020
• RealtimeBoard raises a $25 million Series A, TechCrunch, November 2018
• RealtimeBoard is now Miro, Miro, March 2019
• Miro launches its developer platform, Miro, October 2019
• Miro raises a $50 million Series B, Miro, April 2020
• Miro launches Miroverse, Miro, May 2020
• Miro passes 10 million users, Miro, November 2020
• Miro raises $400 million at a $17.5 billion valuation, Miro, January 2022
• Miro's Andrey Khusid on product-led growth, McKinsey, May 2023
• Miro reports 50 million users, Miro, March 2023
• Miro introduces the Innovation Workspace, Miro, October 2024
• Bending Spoons agrees to acquire Miro, Bending Spoons, September 2026
• Bending Spoons Form 6-K on the proposed Miro acquisition, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, September 2026