Aven, a technology company offering consumer credit cards backed by home equity, announced a $142 million series D round of funding led by Khosla Ventures and General Catalyst, with participation from existing investors including Caffeinated Capital, Electric Capital, Founders Fund, and The General Partnership.
Aven was founded in 2019 “by Sadi Khan, Collin Wikman, and Murtada Shah, former product, design, and engineering executives at Facebook and Square.”
Aven is on a mission to provide consumers “with the lowest cost and most convenient access to capital.”
Their first product – the Aven Home Card – “allows homeowners to access their home equity in minutes, starting at $0 to get, with all the benefits of a traditional credit card. Since launching in California in 2022, the company has issued over $1.5 billion in credit lines for the Home Card, earning a 4.9 star rating on Trustpilot.”
The company has saved customers “over $100 million in interest payments to date.”
Sadi Khan, co-founder and CEO of Aven, said:
“We believe there’s no reason for anyone who owns an asset and has good credit history to use unsecured credit. Full stop. Unsecured credit is expensive and unhealthy. With our asset-backed credit cards, we give consumers credit for what they own – saving them thousands of dollars without sacrificing convenience.”
Homeowners have been drawn to Aven’s ease, efficiency and lower cost of accessing capital:
Last year, Aven grew revenue ~3x and “broadened its offering to include a free, mobile-first financial advisory tool, Aven Advisor, which has quickly amassed over 160,000 members.”
The growth investment will be used to “offer Aven’s Home Card in all 50 states, scale Advisor, and expand into new categories including auto-backed cards, mortgage refinance, and more.”
The company is also announcing “an advisory board – focused on helping the company scale while protecting the interests of its cardholders and offering insights on industry conditions and strategic opportunities.”
The Aven Advisory Board will be “made up of four executives: Michael DeVito, former CEO of Freddie Mac; Tim Mayopoulos, former CEO of Fannie Mae; Jim Messina, former Deputy Chief of Staff to the White House under the Obama administration; and Kevin Warsh, former member of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System.”
Aven is currently available “in Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, North Carolina, North Dakota, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming with a goal of reaching all 50 states by 2025.”
