When I asked leading early stage venture capitalists where they are looking to invest in 2025, it was no surprise that I heard a lot about AI. While the overall startup fundraising market has been bumpy this past year, AI has continued to be a bright spot and attract a lot of venture dollars. In Q3, AI-related startups landed $19 billion – or 28% of total venture dollars – according to Crunchbase.
This year, investors have continued to get more targeted about the AI use cases they are looking for. Instead of an exciting technology looking for a problem, AI has reached an inflection point where it can solve real problems not possible even a few years ago. The investors I spoke with talked about areas like health, climate, financial inclusion, vertical software and legacy industries as opportunities.
What also surprised me was half the investors didn’t mention AI. This may feel refreshing to founders who feel pressure to fit into VC trends or add an AI angle to their pitch. There are many non-consensus early stage investors out there looking at themes within consumer experiences, ethical lending, sustainability, cross-border payments and more.
Read on for more about what themes early stage investors are excited about and where they are looking to make investments in the year ahead.
1) Applying AI to help pharmaceutical companies optimize clinical trials for a widespread positive impact on society
“One investment area I’m personally very excited about is the application of AI in life sciences—specifically, how advances across the AI technology stack can help pharmaceutical companies optimize one of their largest spend areas in clinical trials. There are a number of ways in which AI will revolutionize the clinical trial process: recruitment, trial design, data management, monitoring. These advancements could reduce costs, shorten trial timelines and ensure more diverse and inclusive participation, ultimately leading to faster and more equitable drug development. If successful, this transformation could accelerate access to life-saving treatments, improve global health outcomes and reduce the overall burden of disease, creating a profound and widespread positive impact on society.”
— Leila Zegna, Founding General Partner, Kindred Capital
2) AI applications for personal finance and improving the patient-to-caregiver experience
“I hope to invest more in fintech and healthcare startups leveraging AI to create transformative personal finance tools and improve the patient-to-caregiver experience. There’s a massive opportunity to meet consumer demand for intuitive, tailored solutions by filling a gap traditional players have yet to address effectively. Niche AI applications that offer distinct value propositions in these spaces are set to flourish, especially as consumers look for alternatives that simplify and enhance money management and access tohigh-quality yet affordable healthcare.”
— Marlon Nichols, Co-Founder and Managing General Partner, MaC Venture Capital
3) AI-driven vertical software that will disrupt incumbants
“2024 saw a tremendous wave of vertical AI software products that demonstrated the potential to create lots of value, but thus far we’ve failed to see value capture hold pace with value creation. 2025 is going to be about the aggregators and accumulators of these technologies: those who can leverage existing distribution networks or new business models to put these technologies to work. This will enable a huge wave of AI-driven vertical solutions, dramatically increasing the startup total addressable market within the verticals we operate in at Equal Ventures (climate, insurance, retail, supply chain), where there are very few (if any) software providers valued at over $1B, but ample legacy players valued in the tens and hundreds of billions.”
— Rick Zullo, Founder and Managing Partner, Equal Ventures
4) Investment in strong technical GenAI teams coming out of Europe
“In 2025, we’ll continue looking for strong technical teams in the GenAI space with the potential to build category-leading success stories out of London, Paris, Zurich, Munich, Amsterdam and elsewhere across Europe. Companies such as Eleven Labs, Hugging Face, Recraft and Synthesia are already proving what’s possible, and there’s more to come from companies such as H Company, which recently unveiled a private beta of the agentic platform Runner H. We believe AI talent in Europe rivals that of anywhere else in the world.”
— Zhenya Loginov, Partner, Accel
5) Legacy industries that are ripe for innovation with AI
“I’d like to invest more deeply in the intersection of legacy industries and AI. Having spent my early investing career in private equity, I’ve encountered many of the pain points AI can help address firsthand and believe that the ‘why now’ is incredibly strong across many of these industries.”
— Luna Schmid, Partner, Google Ventures
6) Software focused on regulation in a world of increasingly complex governance and compliance
“I’m particularly excited about startups focused on regulation and data. In a world of increasingly complex governance, compliance, and rapid change, these will be the foundation of future industries, including infrastructure, logistics and supply chain and Industry 4.0.”
— Dr. Gesa Miczaika, General Partner, Auxxo Female Catalyst Fund
7) Fintechs focused on essential goods and ethical lending practices, creating credit ecosystems in new markets
“Traditional ‘buy now, pay later’ options will be outpaced by new fintechs focused on essential goods, such as healthcare, education and housing. These products will balance affordability with ethical lending practices, creating sustainable credit ecosystems in markets with limited credit history infrastructure.”
— Brian Hollins, Founder and Managing Partner, Collide Capital
8) B2B cross-border payments using stablecoin infrastructure
“My 2025 investments will be in exceptional founders building in massive (existing or creating new) markets. One such colossal market is cross-border payments, towering at $190T with $38T in B2B flows annually and expected to grow by 53% until the end of the decade as a consequence of global supply chains, corporate and SME internationalization and tech advancements. Stablecoins are starting to evolve from crypto trading into core financial infrastructure, enabling businesses to expand their access to faster, more purpose-built payment forms at an attractive cost-to-value ratio. I will look out for founders with an experience in moat-building in cross-border payments, using these rails.”
— Malin Posern, Partner, Project A
9) Better consumer experiences in everything from healthcare to content to media
“We pride ourselves on being stridently anti-thematic, seeking out founders with bold, unexpected visions. From a black car dispatch service that became Uber to a Groupon-for-Korea idea that evolved into Coupang, a $30B ecommerce powerhouse, the best ideas often defy categories in their earliest days. We don’t know what category will be hot in 2025, but delightful consumer experiences are becoming a premium in an increasingly noisy world. People are demanding fewer, better experiences in everything from healthcare to content and media. For example, Suno transforms a few words into musical compositions made just for you. Whether mundane or magical, we plan to back ideas that turn the unexpected into essential experiences.”
— Amanda Herson, General Partner, Founder Collective
10) Sustainability technologies transforming how we produce, consume and live
“In 2025, I will continue to invest in sustainability transformation, prioritizing how we produce, consume and live. I’d like to spend time understanding the newest innovations for insulation materials—which also have an impact on sustainable construction. While this type of innovation can take longer to come to market, the outcome will lead to reduced energy consumption, cost savings and better performance, all while supporting a circular economy.”
— Vera Baker, Partner, 4P Capital
