Aave Companies rebrands to Avara, acquires Ethereum self-custody ‘Family Wallet’

On Nov 16, 2023

Decentralized finance (DeFi) group Aave Companies has been rebranded to Avara as it looks to broaden its user base across the Web3 ecosystem.

Stani Kulechov, founder and CEO of Avara (formerly Aave Companies), tells Cointelegraph that the company’s growing number of offerings, including liquidity protocol Aave, the GHO stablecoin, Lens Protocol and Sonar, necessitated an umbrella brand with broader Web3 appeal.

“We will continue to innovate in DeFi and build tools for developers while creating new, intuitive and compelling products that attract mainstream people”

Kulechov adds that the broader industry has focused on building infrastructure to enable the development of products that appeal to a wide user base. The rebrand marks the beginning “of a new era” where blockchain technology becomes more “accessible, usable and fun.”

The Avara founder adds that the company’s new identity is inspired by the Finnish word “Avara,” which carries a number of definitions, including “extensive,” “open,” “spacious” and “inclusive.” Its colloquial use means “seeing more than you see.”

Kulechov also notes that liquidity protocol Aave will continue under the same brand name through Aave Labs and continue its focus on contributing to technological innovations within the DeFi landscape.

The rebrand announcement coincides with the acquisition of Los Feliz Engineering (LFE) and its flagship self-custodial Ethereum wallet, Family Wallet. The strategic deal means that Avara’s product suite now encompasses a consumer wallet allowing users to send, receive, swap and hold cryptocurrencies.

The acquisition also includes ConnectKit, a developer library built by Family Wallet to facilitate connectivity between the wallet service and decentralized applications. LFE’s team, including its CEO and founder Benji Taylor, will join Avara. Taylor takes up the role of senior vice president of product and design.

Avara hopes to tap into LFE’s experience building the messaging application Honk to continue the development of Lens Protocol. As Cointelegraph reported, the latter aims to be a social layer for the wider Web3 ecosystem, connecting users across a decentralized social networking environment and providing developer tools to build applications and communities.

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