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Analysis

September 19, 2025

What VCs think is overrated — and overlooked

Investors from Firstminute, Project A, Cherry Ventures and NGP share what they think is hot — and not


Anne Sraders

6 min read

Adriana Vitagliano, principal at Firstminute. Courtesy of Vitagliano.

All VCs seem to want to talk about right now is defence tech and AI — and for good reason. Startups in the sectors are raising billions of euros and commanding headlines, with both French OpenAI challenger Mistral and German defence unicorn Helsing recently securing a roughly €12bn valuation apiece. 

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Headshot of Christian Noske, partner at NGP Capital
Christian Noske, partner at NGP Capital
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Jack Wang, partner at Project A
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Adriana Vitagliano, principal at Firstminute
Adriana Vitagliano, principal at Firstminute
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Sophia Bendz, partner at Cherry Ventures
Sophia Bendz, partner at Cherry Ventures
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Anne Sraders

Anne Sraders is a senior reporter at Sifted, based in Berlin. She covers the VC industry and deeptech startups. She also writes Sifted's weekly VC newsletter Up Round. Follow her on X and LinkedIn

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