Aave Companies, a prominent player in the web3-focused software technology realm, has undergone a significant rebranding, now operating under the name Avara, according to founder Stani Kulechov’s exclusive disclosure to TechCrunch.
The crypto heavyweight, previously known for its support of Aave Labs, Aave Protocol, GHO native stablecoin, and Lens decentralized social network protocol, has over $8.66 billion of liquidity locked across multiple networks and markets such as Ethereum, Avalanche, Optimism, Polygon, and Base, as stated on its website.
Prior to its Aave and Avara iterations, the company operated under the name ETHLend. Kulechov confirmed that Aave will persist through Aave Protocol and Aave Labs under the Avara umbrella brand, marking the company’s definitive name transition as revealed on TechCrunch’s Chain Reaction podcast.
Avara also announced its strategic acquisition of Los Feliz Engineering, the team behind the Ethereum-based crypto wallet Family. Specifics of the deal were not disclosed.
Utilizing the acquisition of the Family crypto wallet, Avara plans to facilitate user entry into the web3 ecosystem. Kulechov expressed the company’s desire to establish a user-friendly interface within the existing infrastructure to ease interaction, stating, “We really want to send a signal that we are in a time now with web3 where we’re building that interface on the existing infrastructure where people can actually interact in a way where it’s familiar to them.”
The beta version of the crypto wallet is currently available for download, marking the company’s second acquisition following the procurement of Sonar, a metaverse mobile application, in December 2022.
The rebranding and acquisition signify the company’s intention to diversify its focus beyond DeFi, aiming to make web3 accessible to users globally for various use cases, as emphasized by Kulechov. The new mission aligns with the essence of the Avara rebrand, symbolizing a Finnish colloquial meaning of “seeing more than you see,” according to Kulechov.
Reflecting on Avara’s entities, Kulechov expressed particular enthusiasm for Lens due to the existence of “micro communities” within the protocol, including web3 social apps Orb and Phaver. While Lens has been in beta since May 2022, Kulechov is optimistic about its transition out of beta by the end of 2023.
This story was inspired by an episode of TechCrunch’s podcast Chain Reaction. Subscribe to Chain Reaction on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or your favorite pod platform to hear more stories and tips from the entrepreneurs building today’s most innovative companies.
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