An Overview of 20 Noteworthy Encryption Startups

Despite the market's confusion, there are always a number of excellent projects that grasp the narrative direction emerging from incubators each year, taking root and growing in the future market trends.

Recently, 20 startup encryption companies have successfully "graduated" from a well-known incubator, among which 9 projects are driven by AI technology, 5 projects are involved in the stablecoin and payment track, and the remaining projects focus on on-chain trading, DeFi, and the development of science and culture.

Here is an introduction to these 20 startups:

1. 8020

Product Direction: Multi-Chain Trading Platform

8020 is committed to creating a trading platform suitable for Asian users by optimizing the front-end interface and on-chain support to meet the Asian market's demand for efficient on-chain transactions. The platform aims to address the shortcomings of existing trading platforms in terms of user experience for Asian users, providing more intuitive operations and localized support.

The founding team has three years of experience in developing encryption consumer applications and has launched two native encryption applications, with a total of 150,000 users. The goal of 8020 is to attract more Asian users to participate in encryption trading through technological innovation and localization strategies.

2. Afterschool

Product Direction: AI-driven Tutoring Education Platform

Afterschool aims to revolutionize K-12 education using AI technology, providing personalized AI tutoring services for each student. By analyzing students' learning habits with AI, it tailors learning plans to enhance learning efficiency and experience.

The project's goal is to address the issues of uneven distribution of traditional educational resources and insufficient personalization, allowing every student to receive high-quality educational support. The founding team is experienced, having expanded consumer applications to 150 million users and developed products in Google Education, possessing a solid background in the education technology field.

3. CollectiveScience

Product Direction: Decentralized Peer Review Tool

CollectiveScience is dedicated to addressing the pain points of peer review in the scientific community. The project utilizes blockchain technology to optimize the review process, reducing delays, biases, and fraud. It is claimed that global scientists spend as much as $8 billion annually on reviews, yet issues of efficiency and fairness persist.

The platform leverages decentralized technology to enhance the transparency and efficiency of reviews, reduce human intervention, and ensure the fairness and credibility of the evaluations. The founding team consists of alumni from Cambridge, Oxford, Berkeley, and Harvard, including Cambridge PhD scientists and IBM engineers.

4. CreatorGen

Product Direction: AI-driven Advertising Marketing Tool

CreatorGen provides AI advertising tools for brand marketing teams, utilizing AI technology to generate realistic virtual avatars specifically for TikTok advertising. This technology can create lifelike virtual characters, suitable for the needs of short video platforms, helping brands quickly produce eye-catching advertising content while saving costs.

The founder has led product teams at well-known encryption and fintech companies and developed software for AI and encryption startups, possessing rich technical and business experience.

5. FactCheck

Product Direction: Decentralized AI Rumor Refutation Platform

FactCheck utilizes blockchain and AI technology to verify false information on social media through a decentralized marketplace, aiming to address the social issue of widespread fake news dissemination. The platform combines a stablecoin market incentive mechanism to encourage users and AI agents to participate in fact-checking, ensuring the authenticity of information.

6. Fido

Product Direction: Low-Threshold DeFi Retail Services

Fido aims to become a new type of bank that is user-friendly for the average user, leveraging the DeFi lending market to bring stable returns to users. The project aims to address the issues of low returns on traditional bank savings accounts and high risks in the investment market, allowing ordinary users to enjoy the benefits of DeFi while reducing participation risks.

The team has extensive risk management experience and has operated a similar startup with assets under management of up to $100 million.

7. FreedomGPT

Product Direction: AI Agent Model Intelligent Matching

FreedomGPT matches users with the most suitable AI models for their needs through intelligent algorithms, simplifying the selection process. The platform allows users to obtain efficient AI services through simple prompts, covering various application scenarios such as text generation and data analysis.

Its goal is to become the "smart intermediary" for AI services, enhancing user experience and reducing the complexity of AI usage. The founder previously created and sold a startup with nearly 400 employees, whose products served hundreds of millions of users.

8. grandmAIsters

Product Direction: AI Agent Driven Chess Game

grandmAIsters transforms chess into an encryption game, where players can train and compete against AI agents, earning token rewards. The project combines the incentive mechanisms of blockchain with AI technology to create a brand new gaming experience. Players earn rewards by improving the chess skills of AI agents.

9. Guess.Best

Product Direction: Cultural Creative Forecasting Platform

Guess.Best is an innovative prediction market where users participate in guessing which of two popular cultural concepts or things is more popular. The platform utilizes blockchain technology to ensure transparency and fairness of predictions, and incorporates social entertainment elements to attract users. The founders have long collaborated to develop creative encryption consumer products and possess relevant experience.

10. Junction

Product Direction: Cross-Chain Asset Trading Platform

The goal of Junction is to become a "unified entry point" for cross-chain trading, promoting the interconnectivity of the blockchain ecosystem. It allows users to trade any assets on any chain, addressing the complexities of cross-chain transactions. The platform simplifies user operations and enhances trading efficiency through integrated technology. The founders come from well-known blockchain companies and possess extensive experience in the blockchain and payment sectors.

11. Lemonade Payments

Product Direction: Payment Infrastructure Targeting the African Region

Lemonade Payments focuses on the pain points of the African market by integrating mobile payments, banking channels, and stablecoins for the African market, allowing users to quickly send, receive, and convert funds, reducing costs and shortening settlement times. The platform addresses the issue of inadequate payment infrastructure in Africa, utilizing stablecoin technology to enhance payment efficiency and meet the demand for low-cost financial services in the region.

12. Offline Protocol

Product Direction: Offline Communication and Transaction Services in Special Scenarios

Offline Protocol allows users to conduct offline communication and transactions in disaster areas or crowded event sites, aiming to address payment and communication issues in a no-network environment. The platform utilizes blockchain technology to ensure the reliability and security of offline transactions, making it suitable for special scenarios such as natural disasters or large events.

The founder has successfully exited startup companies twice, collaborated with international organizations to formulate policies, and has experience in system development at a well-known payment company.

13. Orbit

Product Direction: DeFAI Assistant

Orbit is an AI assistant that helps users quickly get started in the DeFi space, simplifying yield mining and liquidity provision operations while offering an intuitive AI experience and user interface. It helps users manage their encryption assets more efficiently and addresses the complexities of DeFi operations.

14. Poof

Product Direction: AI-driven dApp Development Platform

Poof leverages AI technology to assist both technical and non-technical users in quickly prototyping, building, and deploying dApps, reducing the complexity and technical barriers of dApp development. The platform simplifies the development process through AI tools, enabling more people to participate in the innovation of the blockchain ecosystem.

The founders have successfully exited a startup together, with backgrounds from several well-known technology and encryption companies.

15. Ripe

Product Direction: Cryptocurrency Payment Targeting Asia

The goal of Ripe is to promote the widespread adoption of encryption payments in the Asian market and address the issue of low acceptance of encryption payments. In response to the trend of QR payment adoption in Asia, it connects encryption wallets to QR payment systems, allowing users to complete payments from encryption to fiat currency by scanning the merchant's QR code, without the need for merchants to adopt new technology.

16. Seismic

Product Direction: Privacy Protection Transaction Payment

Seismic's goal is to become a leading solution in the field of privacy-protecting payments, promoting the application of privacy technology. It adopts new encryption technologies to provide encryption payment and transaction services for privacy-conscious enterprises and individuals. Ensuring transaction security without compromising privacy, it is suitable for confidential scenarios such as finance and commerce.

The founder of the team studied encryption at Stanford and has also worked in the R&D departments of well-known technology companies, with a strong technical background.

17. Slop Club

Product Direction: AI Video Generation Platform

The goal of Slop Club is to drive innovation in user-generated content through AI technology and explore new models in the short video field. It aims to create an AI-generated video platform similar to TikTok, where users can discover, interact, and create AI-generated content. The platform provides direct