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Italian company Bending Spoons flew largely under the radar — until last month. In a span of 48 hours, the company announced the acquisition of AOL and a massive $270 million raise, quadrupling its valuation to $11 billion, up from $2.55 billion set in early 2024.

Bending Spoons has grown rapidly by acquiring stagnating tech brands like Evernote, Meetup, and Vimeo, then turning them profitable through aggressive cost-cutting and price increases. While the company’s approach is similar to private equity, there is one key difference: Bending Spoons has no plans to sell these businesses.

Andrew Dumont, the founder and CEO of Curious, a firm that also acquires and revitalizes what he calls “venture zombies,” is convinced this “hold forever” strategy will become increasingly prominent in the coming years as AI-native startups make older VC-backed software businesses less relevant.

“Our belief is that the venture power law, in which 80% of companies ‘fail,’ produces many great businesses, even if they’re not unicorns,” Dumont told TechCrunch.

Dumont defines a “great business” as one that can be purchased at a low price and quickly revived to generate substantial cash flows. This “buy, fix, and hold” strategy is the playbook for a growing number of investors, from the 30-year-old Constellation Software, which pioneered the model, to newer players, including Bending Spoons, Tiny, SaaS.group, Arising Ventures, and Calm Capital, according to Dumont.

“Our whole model is to buy these companies, make them profitable, and use those earnings to grow the business,” Dumont said.

In 2023, Curious raised $16 million in dedicated capital for buying software companies that have stalled and can no longer secure follow-on investment.

Since then, the firm has bought five businesses, including UserVoice, a 17-year-old startup that raised $9 million in VC funding from Betaworks and SV Angel.

“It’s a great business, but the cap table wasn’t aligned with keeping it. These funds get old, and these companies just sit there,” Dumont said. “We provide liquidity and also reset these companies for profitability.”

Although Dumont didn’t disclose how much he paid for UserVoice, he said that stagnant companies sell for a fraction of the valuation commanded by healthy SaaS startups, which typically sell for 4x annual revenue or more. Based on our conversation, we estimate that “venture zombies” sometimes sell for as low as 1x yearly revenue.

By implementing cost-cutting and price increases, Curious can push these businesses to achieve 20% to 30% profit margins almost immediately. “If you have a million-dollar business, you’re kicking off $300,000 in earnings,” he offered as an example.

They achieve the turnarounds because, unlike the stand-alone companies, they can centralize functions like sales, marketing, finance, and other admin roles, across all of their portfolio companies. “We’re not trying to sell the businesses we acquire and don’t need VC-scale exits, so we can balance growth and profitability more sustainably,” Dumont said.

When asked why VCs don’t urge their startups to be profitable like Curious does, Dumont responded by saying: “Investors don’t care about earnings; they only care about growth. Without it, there’s no VC-scale exit, so there’s no incentive to operate with that level of profitability.”

The cash generated from Curious’ companies is then used to buy other startups, Dumont said.

The firm plans to buy 50 to 75 startups like UserVoice over the next five years, and Dumont is certain he won’t have a shortage of targets to choose from. Curious is focused on acquiring startups that generate $1 million to $5 million in recurring revenue annually, a segment of the software market that, according to Dumont, private equity shops and secondary investors have historically ignored.

“We’ve been doing this for a little under two years now, and we’ve probably looked at at least 500 companies, and we bought five,” Dumont said.

While Bending Spoons’ big valuation hike may validate the “venture zombie” acquisition model, Dumont doesn’t expect a lot of new competition. Turning profits out of stagnation isn’t easy. “It’s a ton of work,” he said.

(Bloomberg) — Asian stocks were set for a third day of gains, tracking similar advances on Wall Street as weak US consumer data lifted bets of a Federal Reserve interest rate cut next month.

Equity-index futures pointed to strong starts for Japan and Australia, with a more modest increase for Hong Kong, at Wednesday’s open. In the US, the S&P 500 rose 0.9% and the Nasdaq 100 climbed 0.6% in choppy sessions as Alphabet Inc. threatened Nvidia Corp.’s dominance in the artificial intelligence sector.

Delayed economic reports out of the US further cemented bets for a Fed cut in December, with traders now pricing in a roughly 90% chance. Retail sales rose modestly in September, suggesting consumer spending is cooling after months of strong demand. While wholesale inflation picked up, consumer confidence in November saw its steepest drop since April.

“Downbeat economic data is delivering gains to stock and bond bulls alike, as weaker-than-expected retail sales and consumer confidence numbers coincide with accelerating job losses and rising odds of a December Fed cut,” said José Torres, senior economist at Interactive Brokers.

The latest US economic reports have taken on added weight ahead of the Fed’s December meeting, given the lack of fresh data. Governor Stephen Miran underscored that outlook by reaffirming his belief that the US economy requires substantial interest‑rate reductions. While the Fed typically adjusts rates in 25‑basis‑point increments, it has on occasion moved by 50 basis points or more.

White House National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett’s emergence as the frontrunner to replace the Fed chair helped drive Treasury yields down, with the 10‑year slipping to 4% for the first time in a month. The dollar slipped 0.3%.

Traders bolstered bets on lower rates over the next year, reflecting the view that a Hassett‑led Fed would deliver the aggressive cuts that President Donald Trump has advocated.

“The argument will be a weaker US dollar, lower front-end rates from May’s meeting onwards and steeper curves,” said Jordan Rochester, a head of macro strategy at Mizuho in London. Hassett is “a credible economist by background, previously working at the Fed as a senior economist, but some may argue his closeness to Trump makes him the patsy.”

In Asia, recent weakening of the yen is increasing the likelihood of the Bank of Japan raising its benchmark rate next month, according to a former executive director of the central bank. The currency hit a fresh 10-month low against the dollar last week and is fueling inflationary pressure via higher import costs.

AI Battle

Alphabet shares jumped 1.6%, moderating earlier gains, after a report that Meta Platforms Inc. was in talks to spend billions on Google’s artificial-intelligence chips. Nvidia shares dropped 2.6%, pulling back from gains it made in Monday’s tech-fueled rally.

“Nvidia’s dominant position is unlikely to be fundamentally threatened in the short-term, but markets are all about forward expectations, and it certainly seems like Alphabet is poised to snatch market share away from Jensen Huang’s empire,” said Chris Beauchamp, chief market analyst at IG.

The rally in Alphabet shares is poised to shake up the rankings of the world’s most valuable companies. A potential changing of the guard comes at a time when the AI industry has come under scrutiny, with stretched valuations causing some volatility.

Elsewhere in commodities, oil fell as signs of progress in peace talks between Ukraine and Russia buoyed expectations that Moscow’s supply will stay online. Gold closed little changed.

Some of the main moves in markets:

Stocks

Nikkei 225 futures rose 1% as of 7:26 a.m. Tokyo time Hang Seng futures rose 0.3% S&P/ASX 200 futures rose 1.1% Currencies

The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index fell 0.3% The euro was little changed at $1.1571 The Japanese yen was little changed at 156.00 per dollar The offshore yuan was little changed at 7.0825 per dollar The Australian dollar was little changed at $0.6467 Cryptocurrencies

Bitcoin was little changed at $87,086.84 Ether was little changed at $2,928.49 Bonds

Australia’s 10-year yield was little changed at 4.43% This story was produced with the assistance of Bloomberg Automation.

©2025 Bloomberg L.P.