The preparation of primary amines attracts huge attention in the molecular synthetic community. Indeed, amines play a crucial role in chemistry as they are important substructures in a huge amount of drug molecules, agrochemicals, dyes and molecular materials. Compared to stoichiometric reductions using metal hydride based reagents, the catalyzed reduction of nitroarenes, nitriles and carboxamides appears to be an attractive option, mainly when associated to first row transition metals such as manganese, iron, or cobalt. In this short review, we illustrate the progress achieved in homogeneous hydrogenation, hydrogen transfer, hydrogen borrowing and hydrosilylation of nitroarenes, nitriles and carboxamides.