Venture Zombie Strategy Quadruples Bending Spoons Valuation to $11 Billion

Italian tech firm Bending Spoons just made global headlines. The company announced a $270 million funding round and the acquisition of AOL. This deal quadrupled its valuation to a staggering $11 billion. The news confirms a powerful new investment trend. Bending Spoons has perfected a unique acquisition playbook. It buys stagnating tech brands like Evernote and Vimeo. It then revives them through aggressive cost-cutting and price hikes, turning them into cash-generating assets. The “Buy, Fix, and Hold” Playbook for Stalled Startups This strategy targets what some investors call “venture zombies.” These are VC-backed startups that have stalled and can no longer secure new funding. According to TechCrunch, Andrew Dumont of Curious champions this model. His firm also acquires these businesses to reset them for profitability. The goal is not a quick flip. Unlike private equity, firms like Bending Spoons and Curious plan to hold these companies forever. They purchase them at a fraction of a healthy startup’s valuation. Some “venture zombies” sell for as low as one times their annual revenue. Why This Model is Reshaping the Software Landscape This approach creates a powerful, self-sustaining engine. The profits from the revived companies are used to fund new acquisitions. Centralizing functions
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