Aven, a fintech startup known for its home-equity-backed credit cards, has raised $110 million in Series E financing at a $2.2 billion post-money valuation. The San Francisco-based company is one of a growing number of startups focused on helping U.S. consumers take advantage of the estimated $35 trillion in wealth tied up in their homes. 

The latest round was led by Khosla Ventures, with participation from existing backers General Catalyst, Caffeinated Capital, GIC, Electric Capital, and Founders Fund. In July 2024, Aven raised $142 million in Series D financing at a $1 billion valuation. 

Aven’s primary product is a secured credit card designed for prime and super-prime homeowners. The card offers consumers interest rates in line with that of a home-equity line of credit, or HELOC, with the ease of a credit card experience. Aven says it has issued $3 billion in aggregate credit lines and has saved consumers more than $215 million in interest costs. 

“Our core product is really working,” says CEO Sadi Khan, who cofounded the company in 2019. His team plans to use the financing round to “hit the gas pedal hard,” he says. 

“We have the ability to be cash-flow positive,” Khan says, citing Aven’s unit economics. “But we decided that investing in our growth and investing in more products is the right decision.” 

Aven delivers lower rates by streamlining the HELOC application and administration processes. The company has even gone so far as to develop a patented robotic arm that it uses as part of its digital notary workflow. A traditional HELOC application process can take 42 days; Aven’s process can take as little as 15 minutes.

Shortening the timelines and lowering the costs associated with home-equity-secured credit make the model more attractive to consumers, who are using Aven for debt consolidation, home improvement, summer camp, and more. Over the past 12 months, Aven’s customer base has tripled in size. 

Other companies are chasing homeowners, too. In just the past week, my own household received HELOC offers in the mail from Figure, Alliant, and Rate. (Direct mail is also an important marketing channel for Aven.) Overall, HELOC balances today stand at around $400 billion, an increase of 27% above pandemic-level borrowing. 

As with any kind of secured debt, borrowers risk losing the underlying asset. Khan says that Aven’s delinquency and default rates are in line with that of traditional HELOCs. Just 0.87% of HELOC balances were more than 90 days delinquent in Q1 2025, versus over 10% of credit cards, according to the Federal Reserve. 

This financing round will also position Aven to expand its product portfolio. Up first is a move into mortgage refinancing. 

“Our goal is very simple,” Khan says. “It’s to be able to build a mortgage product that [could] do a cash-out refinance in as fast as 10 days.”

Aven is running live tests on mortgage refinancing and expects to roll out the product over the next six months.