VivaTech 2025 Reflections: Beyond the Hype, We are witnessing a civilization at the crossroads in Paris

Last week, I had the privilege of navigating the vast halls of VivaTech , an experience that was less a tech tour and more a whirlwind of future-forward ideas. A special thank you to Loretta TIOIELA - GOLDNER 🇺🇦 of Next Sequence® for providing this invaluable ticket and the unique perspective of an early-stage venture associate. As the AI wave swept over every booth, I began my exploration with a single question: Beyond all the hype, the real transformations are happening, and what kind of future are we truly heading to?

1. The "Fire and Ice" of Healthcare AI: A Duet of Grand Narratives and Ground-Level Hurdles

The grand narrative of AI reshaping healthcare reached its zenith at VivaTech. On one hand, there was fire: Doctolib is ambitiously building its full-stack AI healthcare empire, aiming to become Europe's "AI-native health giant"; NVIDIA 's VP envisioned fully automated "robotic hospitals"; and players in AI drug discovery, like Formation Bio , are striving to create "one-click" platforms for new drug development, powered by AI at every step from literature review to wet-lab validation.However, beneath the flames lies the ice of commercial reality. As I delved deeper in a conversation with a product manager Matthew Luppino, MBAfrom Formation Bio, asking, "If no AI-designed drug has passed Phase 3 clinical trials, how do we train our models to break through this golden standard?"—we both went into a thoughtful discussion.(great talk , insightful!) This is the industry's shared dilemma: a vast chasm exists between grand technological visions and the harsh realities of clinical trials.

The most pleasant surprises came from more "down-to-earth" innovations. The startups at the SwissTech pavilion were a highlight. Whether it was Leg&airy 's intelligent prosthetics or AI-Stroke 's stroke prediction, they all focused on concrete applications. Their technology, though early-stage, had clear commercial value and had already been validated in collaborating research institutes. It's a potent reminder that in healthcare, the sexiest innovation may not be the platform that disrupts everything, but the technology that solves a specific pain point and earns the trust of doctors and patients.

2. The Resilience of Founders: In an Age of Hype, What Should We Truly Invest In?

While the spotlight was on AI products, I was more moved by the founders hidden behind them. This was an odyssey of resilience.

At a café, Zakia BELAID-SANDAL , the co-founder and CEO of THERANOVIR , shared how she dedicated two decades of her life to developing antibody treatments for breast cancer. Her perseverance, born from a scientific mission to save patients, is a story no business plan could ever capture.

I was equally impressed by Corinna Weber , the CEO of snap DISCOVERY , who is pioneering brain-computer interface technology to open new frontiers in gaming; and the CEO of Conexify.ai, who is leveraging her deep tech background to tackle automation in the vending industry. These powerful female founders showed me the most resilient and brilliant facets of human nature on the arduous entrepreneurial journey.

This led me to a profound reflection, especially for pre-seed and seed stages: when products and markets are uncertain, what we are truly investing in is not just the market or the technology, but the "Founder-Market Fit." It's the founder's vision, their capacity to learn, their leadership, and that unquantifiable resilience. To walk with them, listen to them, and understand their minds—this is the most fascinating part of the venture capital industry.

3. The Responsibility of Technology: When AI is Not the Only Protagonist

While AI was the undisputed star, the "quiet innovations" focused on a broader future were equally compelling. At a closed-door investor meeting about Frugal AI: Optimizing AI Infrastructure for Efficiency and Scale(gathered insights from top French and German VC firm), a hot topic was AI's energy consumption, with a consensus forming around the need for more energy-efficient models and renewable energy sources. This signals a shift from "growth at all costs" to "responsible innovation."

During the pitching organized by La French Tech , I was also drawn to deep tech companies tackling our shared global challenges: Earthwake , which turns plastic waste into valuable pyrolysis oil; EcoBean I B Corp™ , which is building a circular economy for coffee ground waste; and S.Lab , which creates green packaging from agricultural waste and mushroom mycelium.

These projects remind us that the ultimate value of technology is measured by how it responds to the most pressing questions of our time: sustainability, circularity, and how to make the benefits of technology accessible to all.

A Final Thought

Charles Dickens wrote, "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times." VivaTech was the perfect embodiment of this sentiment. We saw the latent risks of an AI bubble, but we also witnessed countless resilient founders painstakingly driving real innovation forward. As observers of our time and participants in its future, our task is perhaps to cut through the noise, embrace the technologies that solve real problems, and support the founders with great souls.

Because, in the end, the future will be created by them.