With significantly lower rates and ease of access, Aven’s asset-backed card propelled the company to unicorn status with the backing of top investors.
Consumers who own a home now have an alternative to traditional unsecured credit cards—a credit card backed by home equity presenting them with a range of benefits, including significantly lower interest rates. Aven is the first to offer such a card upon its launch in 2022
Through the Aven Home Card the company has issued over $1.5 billion in credit lines and estimates that users have saved $100 million in interest payments to date.
With the cards backed by users’ home equity, they gain ready access to credit—in minutes, according to Aven, while having all the benefits of a traditional credit card. The card has earned a 4.9 star rating on Trustpilot.
“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,” said Sadi Khan, co-founder and CEO of Aven. “With our asset-backed credit cards, we give consumers credit for what they own – saving them thousands of dollars without sacrificing convenience.”
The card’s credit lines are offered up to $250,000 and consumers can gain approval in less than 5 minutes and close as quickly as 15 minutes. Interest rates are approximately half of traditional credit cards, an enormous cost savings. The card has no annual fee, and no notarization/closing fee option that is available in every state where Aven operates.
Aven was founded in 2019 by Sadi Khan, Collin Wikman, and Murtada Shah, former product, design, and engineering executives at Facebook and Square.
The team gained the backing of investors who just completed a $142 million series D round, moving Aven to unicorn status in just five years. The funding was led by Khosla Ventures and General Catalyst, with participation from existing investors including Caffeinated Capital, Electric Capital, Founders Fund, and The General Partnership.
“By using technology to drive efficiency, Aven has built a product that responsibly helps drive down the cost of capital by over 50% for most US homeowners who are using alternative credit cards,” said Vinod Khosla of Khosla Ventures.
Aven grew revenue ~3x last year while expanding its offering to include a free, mobile-first financial advisory tool, Aven Advisor that quickly passed 160,000 members.
With growth funds now in place focus is on offering Aven’s Home Card in all 50 states, scale Advisor, and move into new categories including auto-backed cards, mortgage refinance, and more.
While experiencing such rapid growth, the co-founders took the additional step of setting up an advisory board. They reached out to government and financial industry leaders beginning with four formidable members:
- 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.
Their key role is to support the company’s scale, protect cardholder interests, and give insight on industry conditions and strategic opportunities.
