Ava Protocol

The company was founded in 2021 as OAK Network by Chris Li, who serves as the CEO. Li's background includes experience as a Messaging Protocol Engineer at Microsoft and as a serial entrepreneur, with a history of building Ethereum smart contracts since 2018. His journey into Web3 began in 2017, leading him to work on various Ethereum components before being inspired by Polkadot's multi-chain architecture to create an autonomous transaction protocol. Originally focused on the Polkadot ecosystem, the company raised a $5.5M seed round in 2022, led by investors including Electric Capital, Greylock, and Foundation Capital. In 2024, the company rebranded from OAK Network to Ava Protocol to reflect its expansion to Ethereum and beyond. This was followed by the completion of a $10M total seed funding, including a $4.5M seed+ round, from investors like Taisu Ventures and Bloccelerate VC.

Ava Protocol’s core service is its event-driven execution model, which triggers transactions based on predefined signals like time, price changes, or smart contract updates. This allows developers to automate complex, multi-step workflows without managing private keys or relying on centralized off-chain servers. For instance, a DeFi trader can set private limit orders and stop-loss triggers that execute automatically without revealing their strategy, while a gaming dApp can stream rewards to players based on in-game achievements. The protocol is live on the Ethereum mainnet via EigenLayer and is also preparing to launch a mainnet on Polkadot. A key recent milestone was the acquisition of Openstory, a blockchain data startup, to enhance its ability to monitor and analyze EVM chain activities for more responsive automation. The protocol's native utility token, AP, is planned for launch following the mainnet deployment.