Aave Companies is rebranding to Avara

The Aave protocol developer is changing its name and acquiring the self-custody wallet service Family

November 16, 2023 12:16 pm

Satheesh Sankaran/Shutterstock modified by Blockworks

The blockchain infrastructure company behind open-sourced liquidity protocol Aave has rebranded from Aave Companies to Avara.

Inspired by a Finnish word that translates to ‘spacious,’ Avara will oversee existing portfolio brands, including liquidity protocol Aave, decentralized social media protocol Lens, and stablecoin GHO, among others.

The Aave brand will continue under the umbrella of Aave Labs, and no changes will be made to the Aave protocol’s native token (AAVE).

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Aave on Ethereum has an estimated total value locked (TVL) of $9.2 billion, split between Aave V2 with over $4 billion and Aave V3, which launched on Ethereum mainnet last January, has a TVL of over $5 billion, DeFiLlama shows. This makes the Aave protocol one of the largest DeFi protocols to date.

As part of the announcement, Avara reveals that it has also acquired Los Feliz Engineering (LFE) — the team behind the self-custody Ethereum wallet Family — in conjunction with its latest rebrand.

This acquisition will see the entire LFE team become part of Avara, with Benji Taylor, the founder of the company, stepping into the position of senior vice president of product and design.

“Our wallet will continue to grow and improve under Avara, while maintaining its unique brand and features,” Taylor wrote in a blog post announcing the acquisition.

ConnectKit, Family’s popular developer library that enables wallet-to-dapp connectivity, will also be part of the acquisition. Developers who use the tooling can continue using its services without interruption, as part of the acquisition.

Specific terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

Avara confirms that there will be no strategic changes for the company other than the latest rebrand and acquisition, and that it remains committed to the decentralized finance and Web3 space.

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