19 DeFi Companies & Startups to Watch in 2024
You may also like:
The amount of money currently locked in DeFi stands at around $93.6 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. Uniswap
5-year search growth: 1,700%
Search growth status: Peaked
Year founded: 2018
Location: New York, NY
Funding: $176M (Series A)
What they do: Uniswap is one of the original decentralized finance operators, known for their airdrop (giveaway) of 400 UNI tokens to anyone who interacted with Uniswap or used the service. The airdrop of tokens back then was worth $1200. Today? Around $13,000. Described as “a decentralized protocol for trades on the Ethereum blockchain”, to date Uniswap has processed over $1.7T in volume.
2. dYdX
5-year search growth: 2,900%
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: 1,700%
Search growth status: Regular
Year founded: 2016
Location: Brisbane, Australia
Funding: Undisclosed (Seed)
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: 8,300%
Search growth status: Exploding
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: 99x+
Search growth status: Exploding
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 February 2024, EigenLayer's total value locked (TVL) crossed $8 billion.
6. Synthetix
5-year search growth: 333%
Search growth status: Peaked
Year founded: 2017
Location: Sydney, Australia
Funding: $66.1M (Initial Coin Offering)
What they do: Synthetix is the leading platform in the DeFi space for derivatives trading that is on-chain, secure, and allows users to stake SNX tokens. With almost $2B locked in the platform, it’s clearly taken off worldwide. Assets like gold, U.S. dollars, and more are available within the Synthetix ecosystem.
7. Balancer
5-year search growth: 8%
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: 1,350%
Search growth status: Exploding
Year founded: 2020
Location: Denver, Colorado
Funding: $3.5M (Series A)
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. Reflexer Labs
5-year search growth: 0%
Search growth status: Peaked
Year founded: 2020
Location: San Francisco, CA
Funding: $5.8M (Series Unknown)
What they do: Reflexer Labs understands the incredible amount of volatility in DeFi and in crypto as a whole. This is why they’ve created the RAI, an Ethereum backed stable asset that’s used as collateral with other DeFi protocols, including many on this list.
10. Bancor
5-year search growth: -64%
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: -29%
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. Nexus Mutual
5-year search growth: -57%
Search growth status: Peaked
Year founded: 2017
Location: London, UK
Funding: $3M (Series Unknown)
What they do: Nexus Mutual is different from many of the DeFi start-ups on this list because it’s an insurance company. Using the Ethereum blockchain, users from anywhere in the world can pool their risk together without the need for an intermediary (like a traditional centralized insurance company).
Nexus Mutual started out with Smart Wallet insurance, which protects against hacks or lost funds in the event of an emergency. Nexus plans to roll out more insurance products in the future.
13. 1Inch
5-year search growth: 106%
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 recently raised $175M in their most recent series B funding round.
14. Compound
5-year search growth: 95%
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. IoTeX
5-year search growth: 250%
Search growth status: Peaked
Year founded: 2017
Location: Menlo Park, CA
Funding: $10M (Seed)
What they do: IoTeX is a decentralized blockchain network designed to connect Internet of Things devices. Over 7,400 IoT devices are currently connected through IoTeX’s platform. The platform is powered by IOTX, an Ethereum token. IoTeX currently has a market cap of approximately $300M. And the token has been used on over 58M transactions to date.
16. Kyber Network
5-year search growth: -69%
Search growth status: Peaked
Year founded: 2017
Location: Singapore, Singapore
Funding: $60M (Secondary Market)
What they do: Kyber Network is a DeFi system that allows users to easily swap and convert different digital assets. One of the best features is that users can be paid in any token/crypto seamlessly in their Kyber wallet, but are also able to convert that payment instantly into crypto of their choice.
Vendors who use Kyber can receive payment in a variety of cryptocurrencies, but can also exchange automatically for another desired crypto, like the US Dollar Coin.
17. Yearn Finance
5-year search growth: 300%
Search growth status: Peaked
Year founded: 2020
Location: Cape Town, South Africa
Funding: Undisclosed (Seed)
What they do: Yearn Finance is the go-to platform for “yield farmers” — those looking for arbitrage opportunities by providing tokens as liquidity to different networks.
Using automation, a yield farmer can utilize Yearn to maximize profits and automatically rebalance without having to do the mental work of shifting from platform to platform, token to token.
18. Loopring
5-year search growth: 100%
Search growth status: Peaked
Year founded: 2017
Location: Shanghai, China
Funding: $87M (Seed)
What they do: Loopring is another key player in the DeFi system. Loopring is primarily used primarily by traders and institutions that want to seamlessly integrate trades across exchanges. This usually results in reduced trading costs.
Specifically, for exchanges and institutions, Loopring helps match order flows while allowing on-chain transaction processing and payment.
19. ChainLink
5-year search growth: 550%
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.
