Why 'hold forever' investors are snapping up venture capital 'zombies'

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View this email online in your browser  November 26, 2025 TechCrunch Top 3 Why 'hold forever' investors are snapping up venture capital 'zombies': An investor explains the "buy, fix, and hold" model employed by Bending Spoons and similar companies that buy distressed startups. Read More Warner Music signs deal with AI music startup Suno, settles lawsuit: WMG says artists and songwriters will have full control over whether and how their names, images, likenesses, voices, and compositions are used in new AI-generated music. Read More OpenAI and Perplexity are launching AI shopping assistants, but competing startups aren't sweating it: Startup founders building AI shopping tools think general-purpose models are too broad to deliver truly personalized shopping experiences. Read More Be the first to know when news breaks Subscribe to our News Alerts, and you won't miss a thing. Breaking news, exclusives, and special reports—straight to your inbox. Sign up for News Alerts! A message from Fidelity Top Venture Capital Trends Startups Should Watch in 2025 Report Startup executives, the VC world is always changing, and it's important to stay updated. As your company grows, you face new challenges & opportunities. The competitive landscape is shifting & you need to stay informed and prepared. Download our guide now to master the VC landscape & set your company up for long-term success. Download Now Morning Must-Reads Onton raises $7.5M to expand its AI-powered shopping site beyond furniture: Onton, which change its name from Deft, is giving users an infinite canvas with AI-powered image generation to nudge them towards making quicker purchase decisions Read More ChatGPT's voice mode is no longer a separate interface: ChatGPT now lets you use voice and text in the same screen, making conversations feel more natural as responses and visuals appear in real time. Read More Microsoft's AI chatbot Copilot leaves WhatsApp on January 15: WhatsApp's new platform policies ban general-purpose AI chatbots like Copilot from using its service. Read More Uber and WeRide's robotaxi service in Abu Dhabi is officially driverless: The commercial robotaxi service launched last year. Now, the human safety operator is gone. Read More Speechify adds voice typing and voice assistant to its Chrome extension: In the last 12 months, there has been a proliferation of voice detection tools, thanks to overall quality improvement in speech recognition models. Speechify is hitching its wagon to this train and launching its own dictation tool with support for English. Read More A message from Fidelity Raise the bar on fundraising Successful fundraising begins with the right equity strategy. Fidelity's latest guide will help you learn how to streamline your equity management and avoid common pitfalls. Learn key equity concepts like ownership and dilution and how to optimize your cap table and data room to connect with investors more effectively.  Download the guide You missed these chats from Disrupt: Kindred talks home-swapping platform for travelers, Chef Robotics introduces AI into commercial kitchens, and Character.AI addresses chatbot safety with teens. Watch on Cheddar.com Watch on Streaming Last but Not Least YouTube is working on a feature that will fix the messy home feed: YouTube is experimenting with a new feature that allows users to customize their home feed. Read More Check out some of our other newsletters: StrictlyVC TechCrunch Events TechCrunch Mobility Want to adjust your daily newsletter schedule? You can do it right here Got a tip? Get in touch securely. Want to advertise on TechCrunch? advertise@techcrunch.com Has this been forwarded to you? Click here to subscribe to this newsletter. Unsubscribe Member Center Privacy Policy Copyright © 2025 TechCrunch Media LLC 501 2nd Street, Suite 650, San Francisco, CA 94107