19 DeFi Companies & Startups to Watch in 2024
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The amount of money currently locked in DeFi stands at around $106.2 billion, up from only $10.3 billion at the start of 2020.
To help you get a grasp on what’s happening in this exciting space, we put together a list of 19 rapidly growing DeFi startups to keep an eye on, based on search growth data and VC funding.
Read below for our top DeFi startups that are establishing themselves as leaders in the decentralized finance space.
1. Jupiter Exchange
5-year search growth: 1,150%
Search growth status: Exploding
Year founded: 2021
Location: New York, New York
Funding: Undisclosed
What they do: Jupiter is a decentralized exchange aggregator built on the Solana blockchain. It searches across different DEX liquidity pools to find the best prices and most efficient trading routes for token swaps. Launched in January 2024, Jupiter token (JUP) currently sits at a $1.35 billion market cap.
2. dYdX
5-year search growth: 900%
Search growth status: Peaked
Year founded: 2017
Location: San Francisco, CA
Funding: $87M (Series C)
What they do: dYdX is one of the leading DeFi exchanges currently out there, and also one of the few that has raised money the traditional way (Series A, Series B).
The exchange runs on audited smart contracts on the Ethereum blockchain, allowing DeFi to commence but with the security and flexibility of a more centralized exchange, like a Coinbase. dYdX was founded by a former Coinbase engineer, Antonio Juliano.
3. Rocketpool
5-year search growth: 2,500%
Search growth status: Peaked
Year founded: 2016
Location: Brisbane, Australia
Funding: Undisclosed (Initial Coin Offering)
What they do: If you’ve had any exposure to the cryptocurrency world, you might have heard the term “staking”. Staking basically means using crypto to help secure the blockchain while earning rewards, interest, or tokens for your participation.
Staking on the Ethereum blockchain is too technical, complicated, and risky for many folks without a coding background. Enter Rocketpool. Rocketpool is a staking option that allows users to stake with less than required minimums while making the process more accessible.
4. DeBank
5-year search growth: 6,600%
Search growth status: Regular
Year founded: 2017
Location: Singapore, Singapore
Funding: $25M (Series A)
What they do: DeBank is a DeFi dashboard and portfolio tracker where users can manage their investments. Inside the DeBank platform, you'll find decentralized lending protocols, stablecoins, margin trading platforms, and DEXes. In total, the dashboard tracks 1,704 protocols across 44 blockchain networks.
5. EigenLayer
5-year search growth: 3,700%
Search growth status: Regular
Year founded: 2020
Location: Seattle, Washington
Funding: $64.4M (Series A)
What they do: EigenLayer is an Ethereum protocol that allows users to re-stake their ETH or Liquid Staked Tokens (LST) through smart contracts to earn additional interest on their staked ETH. Developers can also tap into the pooled security of Ethereum's stakers, promoting permissionless innovation and free-market governance. In June 2024, EigenLayer's total value locked (TVL) crossed $20 billion.
6. Solflare
5-year search growth: 4,900%
Search growth status: Regular
Year founded: 2015
Location: La Mesa, California
Funding: Undisclosed
What they do: Solflare is a cryptocurrency wallet specifically built for the Solana blockchain. Users can send, receive, store, and swap both native SOL tokens and SPL tokens (Solana's equivalent of ERC-20 tokens). According to the startup's website, they currently have more than $14.3 billion staked and 73.95 million users.
7. Balancer
5-year search growth: 23%
Search growth status: Exploding
Year founded: 2018
Location: Lisbon, Portugal
Funding: $32.3M (Series Unknown)
What they do: Like many of the other DeFi startups on this list, Balancer works as a decentralized protocol for swapping tokens, providing liquidity pools, and working as an automatic market maker.
Balancer’s value proposition is that instead of paying a portfolio manager to rebalance your portfolio, you collect fees from traders who rebalance your portfolio for you.
8. Pendle Finance
5-year search growth: 5,100%
Search growth status: Regular
Year founded: 2020
Location: Denver, Colorado
Funding: $3.7M (Seed)
What they do: Pendle Finance is a DeFi protocol that operates on the Ethereum blockchain. Unlike other DeFi platforms, Pendle offers yields in the form of tradable tokens. The startup's native token, PENDLE, surged after a strategic partnership with Ondo Finance, backed by Coinbase, was announced.
9. UniSat
5-year search growth: 675%
Search growth status: Exploding
Year founded: 2023
Location: Hong Kong, Hong Kong
Funding: Undisclosed (Seed)
What they do: UniSat is a non-custodial cryptocurrency wallet on the Bitcoin blockchain. It can store, transfer, and inscribe Bitcoin ordinals and BRC-20 tokens. Recently, the company announced that it had reached 1 million weekly active users.
10. Bancor
5-year search growth: -45%
Search growth status: Peaked
Year founded: 2016
Location: Zug, Switzerland
Funding: $152.3M (Seed)
What they do: Bancor was one of the first players in DeFi. And has encountered plenty of peaks and valleys along the way. Billed as the people’s bank, it allows users to generate cryptocurrencies and functions as yet another decentralized exchange.
What makes Bancor unique is that it was one of the first, evidenced by its massive funding round via ICO. Today, the start-up has grown quite a bit but is still working on innovation internally.
11. MakerDao
5-year search growth: 267%
Search growth status: Peaked
Year founded: 2014
Location: Santa Cruz, California
Funding: $79.5M (Series Unknown)
What they do: MakerDao brands itself as a decentralized autonomous organization, using the world’s first “unbiased currency” called Dai. Maker is an entire ecosystem where holders of Dai can vote on changes to the Maker protocol itself (the code underlying it), borrow money by putting up Dai as collateral, and use a wallet called Oasis for storing virtual currencies.
12. Pump.fun
5-year search growth: 456%
Search growth status: Exploding
Year founded: 2024
Location: United States
Funding: Undisclosed
What they do: Pump.fun is a meme coin development platform. Users can create and launch new meme coins for approximately 0.02 SOL (around $3.50) without any coding or technical skills. The platform stands out because all tokens are launched without presales or team allocations, which fairly distributes tokens to help prevent rug pulls and scams.
13. 1Inch
5-year search growth: 107%
Search growth status: Regular
Year founded: 2020
Location: Moon, Virginia
Funding: $189.8M (Series B)
What they do: 1Inch is almost brand new, and not much information exists besides the fact they’re trying to create a new DeFi environment that contains multiple decentralized protocols within one environment. 1Inch will be governed by a DAO (Decentralized Autonomous Organization) where users get voting rights based on holding the 1Inch token. 1inch raised $175M in their most recent series B funding round.
14. Compound
5-year search growth: 97%
Search growth status: Regular
Year founded: 2017
Location: San Francisco, CA
Funding: $70.8M (Debt Financing)
What they do: Compound Finance is an open-source interest rate protocol that is working to make novel financial applications available to the masses. As of today, there is nearly $15B locked in the Compound DeFi system. Users of Compound can earn interest ranging from 2%-8.5% by supplying crypto to the ecosystem. As one of the largest players in the space, Compound has been backed by large investors like Andreeson Horowitz, Coinbase, and Bain Capital.
15. Zerion
5-year search growth: 1,967%
Search growth status: Regular
Year founded: San Francisco, California
Location: 2016
Funding: $33M (Series B)
What they do: Zerion is a cryptocurrency wallet for managing NFTs and DeFi assets. The platform consolidates over 60 DeFi protocols and offers features like live price charts, trending investments, and access to top liquidity pools and borrowing protocols. The startup has more than 137,000 Discord members and over 341,000 active funded wallets.
16. LayerZero
5-year search growth: 8,900%
Search growth status: Exploding
Year founded: 2021
Location: Vancouver, Canada
Funding: $293.3M (Secondary Market)
What they do: LayerZero is an omnichain interoperability protocol that allows for transferring assets between 50 different blockchain networks. In 2023, the startup raised $120 million at a valuation of $3 billion.
17. Sender Wallet
5-year search growth: 4,100%
Search growth status: Regular
Year founded: 2022
Location: Singapore, Singapore
Funding: $4.5M (Seed)
What they do: Sender Wallet is a non-custodial DeFi wallet built primarily for the NEAR Protocol. The wallet also supports Ethereum, BNB Smart Chain, Aurora, Avalanche, Polygon, and 15 more compatible blockchains. The Sender Wallet app has more than 100,000 downloads on the Google Play Store.
18. Raydium
5-year search growth: 4,100%
Search growth status: Regular
Year founded: 2020
Location: Singapore, Singapore
Funding: Undisclosed (Convertible Note)
What they do: Raydium is a decentralized exchange built on the Solana blockchain. Customers can use the platform to process fast, low-cost transactions. The startup also allows users to conduct token swaps by leveraging liquidity pools. Raydium's token (RAY) currently has a market cap of $387.5 billion.
19. ChainLink
5-year search growth: 4%
Search growth status: Peaked
Year founded: 2014
Location: Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands
Funding: $32M (Initial Coin Offering)
What they do: Chainlink works as one of the essential cogs in the DeFi system. To have a decentralized financial system, you need accurate, reliable, and cutting-edge information on pricing and asset movements.
Chainlink is an oracle, or intermediary, between complicated smart contracts and allows them to work together in unison. Seemingly unrelated smart contracts can be connected through using Chainlink.
Conclusion
So there you have it. Our list of 19 fast-growing DeFi startups that are changing perceptions around what money really is, and what it can do.
These DeFi start-ups all feature a tight user experience across their products, sleek branding and marketing, but most importantly a whole new way to move money in the digital age.
