Aven raises $142m in Series D to bring home equity-backed credit card

By Gloria Mathias

Aven, a technology company offering consumer credit cards, has 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.

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.

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 the most convenient access to capital.

“We believe there’s no reason for anyone who owns an asset and has a 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.”

“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.

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.

“I was blown away by the Aven team when I first met them several years ago. But I was initially skeptical that their core product would scale in the staid, calcified industry structure that has prevailed in the mortgage market for decades. The Aven team is proving the sceptics wrong in a big way. I am thrilled to be their partner,” said Kevin Warsh, Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University.

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. Its goal is to reach all 50 states by 2025.