30 In-Demand Mobile App Companies & Startups (2024)
You may also like:
- 14 Mobile App Development Trends
- 20 Trending Social Media Companies & Startups
- 7 Important UX Design Trends
Countless mobile apps are used by millions of people each day.
In fact, according to Statista, the number of mobile app downloads grew to 257 billion worldwide.
That’s an increase of 33.5% on 2018’s figures.
With that in mind, it’s no wonder we’re seeing a seemingly endless conveyor belt of startup app companies.
As such, we’ve picked out 30 of the most in-demand startups currently making waves in the mobile app space.
1. FairMoney
5-year search growth: 255%
Search growth status: Exploding
Year founded: 2017
Location: Paris, France
Funding: $67.5M (Series B)
What they do: FairMoney is an app-based Nigerian bank. The startup provides loans of up to ₦500,000 without paperwork. As of 2024, FairMoney had over 6 million retail customers.
2. Cityflo
5-year search growth: 193%
Search growth status: Exploding
Year founded: 2015
Location: Mumbai, India
Funding: $8.5M (Series A)
What they do: Cityflo is an urban transportation app that provides economical bus travel. The app offers booking, rescheduling, and live tracking features. According to Cityflo, 8,000 people have switched from car use to buses using their app.
3. RevenueCat
5-year search growth: 1,350%
Search growth status: Regular
Year founded: 2017
Location: San Francisco, CA
Funding: $68.5M (Series C)
What they do: RevenueCat is a startup that provides a platform for managing in-app subscriptions for mobile apps. Their software development kit (SDK) integrates with app code, making it easy to implement and manage subscription-based business models. RevenueCat provides features such as analytics, reporting, and subscription management to help app developers increase their revenue and retain customers.
4. Amber Group
5-year search growth: 40%
Search growth status: Peaked
Year founded: 2017
Location: Singapore, Singapore
Funding: $628M (Series C)
What they do: Amber Group is a cryptocurrency fintech startup that was recently valued at $1B. The startup launched its mobile app in Q3 2020 and has since amassed over 100,000 signups. The firm has accumulated upwards of 700 institutional customers, consisting mainly of hedge funds.
5. Swapi
5-year search growth: 33%
Search growth status: Regular
Year founded: 2020
Location: London, United Kingdom
Funding: $1.9M (Pre-seed)
What they do: Swapi is a loyalty point-trading mobile trading platform. Users can trade accumulated rewards instantly with other users via the Swapi application. These trades can be cross-brands to allow users to maximize their loyalty points. Demos are currently available for request.
6. Givingli
5-year search growth: 1,300%
Search growth status: Regular
Year founded: 2019
Location: Los Angeles, California
Funding: $14M (Series A)
What they do: Givingli is a digital greetings card platform designed to facilitate “human connection”. Each greeting card is customizable and gifts can be attached. Over 5M people have used Givingli’s service since its launch in 2019.
7. MobiMatter
5-year search growth: 99x+
Search growth status: Exploding
Year founded: 2018
Location: Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
Funding: $513.6K (Grant)
What they do: Mobimatter is an eSIM marketplace app where users can shop available eSIM offers while traveling. The app has offers available from 30+ eSIM providers for over 200 countries worldwide. The free app has over 100,000 downloads on the Google Play store.
8. Polycam
5-year search growth: 1,350%
Search growth status: Regular
Year founded: 2021
Location: San Francisco, California
Funding: $22.1M (Series A)
What they do: Polycam is a 3D scanning and LiDAR app for iOS and Android devices. The app lets users scan their surroundings to create 3D models from their photos. The startup currently has 100,000 paid users and over 1 million downloads in the Google Play store.
9. Bodyguard
5-year search growth: 6,165%
Search growth status: Regular
Year founded: 2018
Location: Nice, France
Funding: $9.9M (Series A)
What they do: Bodyguard is a “positive engagement” app designed to filter out “toxic” content on social media. The software uses AI to moderate in real-time and offers customization options for its users. Bodyguard is used by over 50,000 Europeans and has recently expanded to the US market.
10. FREENOW
5-year search growth: 85%
Search growth status: Exploding
Year founded: 2009
Location: Hamburg, Germany
Funding: $131.2M (Series Unknown)
What they do: FREENOW is a leading mobility service provider and ride-hailing app in Europe. Currently, the app offers taxis, private vehicle hire, car sharing, e-scooter rentals, car rentals, and more in 170 European cities across 9 countries. It's estimated that more than 56 million customers use the app today.
11. Dukaan
5-year search growth: 186%
Search growth status: Regular
Year founded: 2019
Location: Bangalore, India
Funding: $17M (Series A)
What they do: Dukaan is an online store creation (and management) app. The platform offers customization options, custom domains, and additional plugins to specific to ecommerce brands. Dukaan currently covers over 200 different categories of business.
12. Powder
5-year search growth: 136%
Search growth status: Exploding
Year founded: 2018
Location: Paris, France
Funding: $20.1M (Grant)
What they do: Powder is a video-sharing startup facilitating the recording and editing of video game footage. Users can record gameplay directly to the Powder app from their console, PC, or mobile. Editing is also possible in-app before distribution to various social media accounts. More than 1.5 million gamers and content creators currently use Powder.
13. Agora
5-year search growth: 200%
Search growth status: Peaked
Year founded: 2019
Location: London, United Kingdom
Funding: $10.4M (Convertible Note)
What they do: Agora is a video-based beauty marketplace app. Users can use the platform to sell beauty products via 15 to 180-second videos. The app uses hashtags to help categorize products. The startup currently has over 50,000 registered users.
14. Crunchyroll
5-year search growth: 317%
Search growth status: Exploding
Year founded: 2008
Location: Tokyo, Japan
Funding: $26.8M (Series Unknown)
What they do: Crunchyroll is a subscription video-on-demand streaming app that specializes in anime and gaming content. The app offers more than 1,000 anime shows, 200+ East Asian dramas, and dozens of games in 18+ languages. Today, the app has more than 13 million paying subscribers.
15. Relate
Search growth status: Regular
Year founded: 2018
Location: Stockholm, Sweden
Funding: $2.3M (Seed)
What they do: Relate is a relationship support platform providing its users with counseling services. Its app has a wealth of resources to help its users tackle relationship troubles and conflicts. Relate has partnered with a relationship communications app Paired.
16. So Syncd
5-year search growth: 3,600%
Search growth status: Regular
Year founded: 2019
Location: London, United Kingdom
Funding: $1M (Pre-Seed)
What they do: So Syncd is a dating app that uses personality compatibility to match individuals. It was created by sisters, Jessica and Louella Alderson, who saw a gap in the market for a dating app that prioritizes personality over physical appearance. The app uses a compatibility test based on the Myers-Briggs personality test, and has a loyal following of users who appreciate its unique approach to online dating.
17. inDrive
5-year search growth: 2,400%
Search growth status: Exploding
Year founded: 2012
Location: Mountain View, California
Funding: $537M (Debt Financing)
What they do: inDrive is a ride-hailing app available in 740+ cities across 45+ countries worldwide. Unlike alternative ride-hailing apps like Uber, inDrive users a peer-to-peer pricing model where passengers and drivers negotiate fares directly. Passengers set the rate they want to pay when requesting a ride and drivers can submit their bid.
In 2023, inDrive was the most downloaded ride-hailing app with 66.6 million total downloads. Since its inception, the app has been downloaded more than 240 million times.
18. TipTapp
5-year search growth: 20%
Search growth status: Exploding
Year founded: 2015
Location: Stockholm, Sweden
Funding: $7.5M (Series Unknown)
What they do: Tiptapp is a social app that allows users to connect with their neighbors and communities by requesting or offering help with small tasks and errands. Users can earn credits by helping others and use them to request assistance for their own needs. The app aims to foster a sense of community and promote sustainable living by encouraging users to share resources and reduce waste.
19. Telegram
5-year search growth: 456%
Search growth status: Exploding
Year founded: 2013
Location: Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Funding: $3.2B (Debt Financing)
What they do: Telegram is a cross-platform instant messaging app that supports large file sharing, channel management, and cloud access. Unlike WhatsApp, Telegram allows users to create much larger group chats (up to 200,000 members), create channels for broadcasting messages to unlimited subscribers, and log into their accounts from multiple devices simultaneously. Today, Telegram has more than 900 million monthly active users.
20. Feeld
5-year search growth: 257%
Search growth status: Exploding
Year founded: 2014
Location: London, England
Funding: $550.6K (Angel)
What they do: Feeld is a dating app designed for open-minded individuals, couples, and those interested in exploring alternative relationship styles. The app allows users from over 20 gender identity options and 20+ sexuality choices. Today, the app has more than 1 million downloads on the Google Play Store.
21. Blinkist
5-year search growth: -27%
Search growth status: Peaked
Year founded: 2012
Location: Berlin, Germany
Funding: $34.8M (Series C)
What they do: Blinkist is a book summary app that aims to help busy individuals learn more in less time. The app offers condensed summaries of popular non-fiction books in various categories such as psychology, business, self-help, and more. With Blinkist, users can read or listen to key insights from books in just 15 minutes or less, making it a great option for those who want to learn on-the-go.
22. Blox
Search growth status: Regular
Year founded: 2020
Location: Mumbai, India
Funding: Undisclosed (Angel)
What they do: Blox is a real estate purchasing platform. The startup claims to offer users the ability to “buy a home in less than 10 clicks”. The house-buying app is backed by Tinder co-founder Justin Mateen.
23. Apna
Search growth status: Exploding
Year founded: 2019
Location: Mumbai, India
Funding: $193.5M (Series C)
What they do: Apna is a professional networking and jobs platform based in India. Users can schedule phone interviews and call employers via the app. In its first year, Apna amassed over 1.2M users.
24. WISESIGHT
5-year search growth: 0%
Search growth status: Regular
Year founded: 2015
Location: Jerusalem, Israel
Funding: $6.6M (Series A)
What they do: WiseSight is an app-based parking management solution. The app provides real-time information, statistics, and analysis to assist parking management. The company’s services are targeted at smart cities and the private parking sector.
25. Tapcart
5-year search growth: 79%
Search growth status: Regular
Year founded: 2017
Location: Santa Monica, California
Funding: $80.1M (Series B)
What they do: Tapcart is designed to help eCommerce retailers launch and manage their brand’s mobile apps. A drag-and-drop app builder facilitates design without code. Described as “Shopify for mobile apps”, Tapcart has seen over $1.2B worth of merchant sales to date.
26. Buzzer
5-year search growth: -14%
Search growth status: Regular
Year founded: 2020
Location: New York, New York
Funding: $44M (Series A)
What they do: Buzzer is a customizable live sports notification app. The mobile application provides short-form sports content with real-time notifications to deliver news as it breaks. So far, Buzzer has been backed by nine investors, including former basketball player Michael Jordan.
27. Copper
Search growth status: Regular
Year founded: 2019
Location: Seattle, Washington
Funding: $42.3M (Series A)
What they do: Copper is an app-based banking platform built for teenagers. The banking app has an accompanying debit card which can be bought online or in-store. Features such as automated allowance are designed especially for a younger demographic. According to Copper, over 300,000 members use the app.
28. Collegia
5-year search growth: 73%
Search growth status: Regular
Year founded: 2018
Location: Oxford, United Kingdom
Funding: $950K (Seed)
What they do: Collegia is an app-based auto-enrolment pension provider. The app can manage multiple pension schemes and provides a 25% government bonus on your investments. Collegia officially launched its mobile app in June 2021.
29. PupPod
5-year search growth: 6%
Search growth status: Peaked
Year founded: 2015
Location: Hood River, Oregon
Funding: $2.8M (Series Unknown)
What they do: PupPod is an app-powered interactive dog game. The game enables users to engage with their pets remotely using their smartphones and a video feeder device. PupPod currently retails on Amazon for $199.00.
30. Jigsaw
5-year search growth: 31%
Search growth status: Regular
Year founded: 2016
Location: Manchester, United Kingdom
Funding: $5M (Seed)
What they do: Jigsaw is a personality-first dating app that partially hides profile pictures with jigsaw pieces. The app is intended to promote conversation which in turn slowly removes jigsaw pieces, revealing faces. Currently, Jigsaw has been downloaded by over 50,000 people on the Play Store.
Conclusion
That concludes our list of mobile app startups to monitor closely in 2024.
There may be a wide variety of niches covered, but all these apps are doing something a little bit different.
None of our inclusions try to reinvent the wheel. Instead, there is a focus on refining and improving. As part of this, AI features prominently in many of these startups. Which is likely to increase in prevalence over the next few years.
