👋 Hi, I’m Andre and welcome to my newsletter Data-Driven VC which is all about becoming a better investor with Data & AI. Join 34,760 thought leaders from VCs like a16z, Accel, Index, Sequoia, and more to understand how startup investing becomes more data-driven, why it matters, and what it means for you.

ICYMI, check out our most read episodes:

Subscribe now

Welcome to another edition of our Sunday “Resources” stream where we share our most valuable data & resources across four rotating formats:

  1. 30 Hottest Startups of the Month (this is today!)

  2. Top Downloaded Resources from The Lab #1 (see 1513 Angels that actively invest in startups and/or funds here)

  3. State of the Market (see July episode here)

  4. Top Downloaded Resources from The Lab #2 (see 997 Accelerators that you should know here)

For 1. and 3., we collaborate with best-in-class partners to ensure you get the highest quality data. For 2. and 4., we leverage our ever-growing product portfolio and share selective snapshots of the most sought-after resources from The Lab.

Access all our resources

Hot startups in August? Wait… who’s raising - or even more important - who’s investing in the summer break?

With data from Carta, Peter Walker has recently refuted the stereotype of the great VC summer break - highlighting that the summer months show consistent deal closing activity.

Even more reason, to watch out for the 30 hottest startups across stealth, early- and growth-stages this month!

For today’s Picks of the Month, we’re excited to partner with Specter: The Bloomberg of Private Markets serving leading VC firms like Bessemer, Index, Insight, and 300+ more.

Test Specter

Instead of ranking startups case by case via different growth signals, we unify all dimensions into a single metric: investor interest measured by the number of investors visiting the respective stealth/startup profiles on the Specter platform.

We cover the top 10 stealth founders, top 10 early-stage startups that raised less than $10M, and the top 10 growth-stage startups that raised more than $10M. Global and across industries.

This month, we find 5 key themes among trending startups:

  1. AI Developer Tools: Startups are building AI-native tools to enhance coding, prototyping, and software development workflows.

  2. AI Infrastructure & Enterprise AI: Platforms focus on enterprise-grade AI deployment, security, and integration into core business systems.

  3. Vertical AI Applications: AI is being applied to niche domains like legal tech, spatial analytics, and infrastructure engineering.

  4. Open Source & Customization: Open-source frameworks and libraries are enabling more flexible, developer-driven AI adoption.

  5. Next-Gen Productivity & Automation: Tools like AI assistants and automation platforms are targeting knowledge work and task management.

Many of the featured founders are repeat entrepreneurs with prior $100M+ exits, IPO experience, and leadership at top VC-backed companies, alongside pedigrees from MIT, Purdue, and major tech firms (AWS, Asana, OpenSea). This combination of proven operators and deep technical expertise underpins a strong trend of experienced founders tackling AI-driven enterprise and infrastructure problems.

Here are the 30 most sought-after founders/startups in August 2025 you don’t want to miss👇 ranked by investor interest and page visits on the Specter platform.

10 Hottest Stealth Founders 🥷🏻

logo

Subscribe to DDVC to read the rest.

Join the Data Driven VC community to get access to this post and other exclusive subscriber-only content.

Join the Community

A subscription gets you:

  • 1 paid weekly newsletter
  • Access our archive of 300+ articles
  • Annual ticket for the virtual DDVC Summit
  • Discounts to productivity tools
  • Database Benchmarking Report
  • Virtual & physical meetups
  • Masterclasses & videos
  • Access to AI Copilots

Reply

or to participate