Aera
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2023
- HeadquartersChicago, United States
- Headcount1–10
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingSoftware
Aera firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Aera
- Legal name
- Aera
- Website
- https://aera.finance
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2023
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 1–10 employees
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Aera industry classification
Industry- Product category
- DeFi Treasury Management
- NAICS
- Funds, Trusts, and Other Financial Vehicles (525)
- SIC
- Finance Services (6199), Security & Commodity Brokers, Dealers, Exchanges & Services (6200)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Yield, Vaults & Asset Management (vault strategies, robo-vaults, structured yield) (FSAPAEAG)
- akta.pro secondary industries
- Treasury Management & Corporate Crypto Yield Programs (FSADAHAL), Grants, Funding & Budget Allocation Platforms (FSAPAHAE), DAO Treasury, Governance & On-Chain Finance Tools (FSADAMAL)
Keywords
Where Aera is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- Chicago
- HQ country
- United States
- HQ region
- North America
Markets served
Aera business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Software
- Cost components
- Technology or R&D, Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure
Revenue model
- Vault Guardian Fees: Fees accrue as a proportion of vault holdings. The fee rate is set upon vault creation and capped at 0.0000001% per second (approximately 3.1536% per year). Fee recipients claim accumulated fees through the claim function.
- Platform Services: Aera offers on-boarding support including discussion on objective function and asset selection, front-end access, selection and recruitment of vault guardians, back-end services like arbitrage agents and options brokers, and client-specific economic simulations.
Go-to-market motion1 record
Distribution channels2 records
Marketing channels5 records
Aera product offering
Product offeringCore offering
Aera provides non-custodial onchain vault infrastructure for DAOs and DeFi protocols, enabling automated treasury management via configurable "guardian" agents that execute strategies off-chain while assets remain protected on-chain. The platform supports a range of treasury strategies (stablecoin yield, protocol-owned liquidity, ETH yield, volatility targeting, grants distribution, trade execution, and incentive optimization) deployed through modular SingleDepositorVault and MultiDepositorVault contracts on EVM-compatible networks.
Product overview
Aera is a decentralized treasury management protocol providing institutional-grade, scalable onchain vault infrastructure. The platform operates as a modular system with the core Aera Platform and multiple strategy modules including Stablecoin Yield (deposits stablecoins across Compound, Aave, Morpho), Protocol-Owned Liquidity (POL), Trade Execution, ETH Yield, Volatility Targeting, Grants Distribution, and Incentive Optimization. The protocol supports different vault types including SingleDepositorVault for treasury management and MultiDepositorVault for yield strategies, each configurable through hooks and guardians. The system has evolved through three major versions: V1 (2023) with two-asset vault, V2 (2024) with multi-asset support and off-chain execution, and V3 (2025) with full decentralization and competing guardian network.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Products and services
- Aera Platform Institutional-grade, scalable vault infrastructure protocol for onchain treasury management. Enables DAOs and protocols to deploy non-custodial vaults with automated strategy execution through configurable guardians.
- Stablecoin Yield Strategy Strategy that deposits stablecoins across Compound, Aave, and Morpho lending protocols, automatically rebalancing to maximize risk-adjusted yields through five-minute risk assessments by the Guardian.
- Protocol-Owned Liquidity Strategy Strategy that enables protocols to bootstrap liquidity with protocol-owned assets to encourage DeFi adoption by reducing slippage, increasing volume, and generating fees.
- Trade Execution Strategy Strategy focused on efficient trade execution for treasury operations, enabling best price execution with minimal price impact for token swaps and grants distribution.
- ETH Yield Strategy Strategy that deposits idle ETH into blue-chip lending protocols to generate yield above the staking rate via leverage.
- Volatility Targeting Strategy Treasury strategy that minimizes volatility by dynamically rebalancing assets via optimized execution in response to changing market conditions.
- Grants Distribution Feature enabling flexible grants distribution in native tokens or stablecoins with best price execution and minimal price impact.
- Incentive Optimization Service for efficient incentive distribution to avoid overspending without sacrificing growth objectives.
- SingleDepositorVault Vault type for single depositor (treasury) use cases, allowing DAOs to manage their treasury without compromising voter control or speed.
- MultiDepositorVault Vault type for multi-depositor use cases, enabling purpose-built yield-generating strategies or new reward programs for multiple participants.
- FeeVault Vault type for fee management with configurable fee calculators (BaseFeeCalculator, DelayedFeeCalculator, PriceAndFeeCalculator).
- Aera App Web application for accessing Aera vaults, viewing the public vault dashboard, and managing treasury operations. Currently in closed beta.
Quantifiable outcome
- Guardian risk assessments run every five minutes for stablecoin yield strategies
Companies that use Aera
Customer profileSegments2 records
Ideal customer profiles2 records
Aera technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- Yes
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Integration3 records
AI capability2 records
Feature7 records
Aera partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
Five partnerships are on record, tiered core.
- GauntletcoreAera hired Gauntlet's economic research experts to design the DeFi treasury management protocol. Gauntlet continues to provide off-chain intelligence and risk analysis capabilities for vault guardians.
- AuditlesscoreSmart contract engineers at Auditless were hired to design and build the Aera protocol. Auditless contributed to the architecture and implementation of the decentralized treasury management system.
- SpearbitcoreConducted security review and audit of the Aera V2 protocol in August 2023. Provides ongoing security assurance through competitive bug bounties.
- OpenZeppelincoreOpenZeppelin conducted security audits of the Aera protocol, providing security assurance for the vault infrastructure.
- Gnosis SafecoreSupports Gnosis Safe integration for vault operation. The vault owner can be a Gnosis Safe multisig, with specific guides for composing transactions from Gnosis Safe to interact with Aera vaults.
Scale indicators3 records
Recent moves6 records
Expansion highlights5 records
Aera competitors and assessment
Company assessmentDirect peers
- Yearn Finance: Yearn is the original DeFi yield aggregator using vault strategies that automatically rebalance across lending protocols. Aera competes directly with it in the automated on-chain treasury/yield optimization space, though Yearn's vaults are custodial-in-style while Aera emphasizes non-custodial guardian execution.
- Beefy Finance: Beefy is a multi-chain yield optimizer running automated vault strategies across dozens of protocols and networks. Aera targets the same automated yield strategy use case (especially MultiDepositorVault), making Beefy a closely comparable yield-aggregator peer.
- Convex Finance: Convex aggregates Curve LP positions via boosted yields and is a major DeFi treasury/yield platform. It competes with Aera for the same institutional/DAO treasury management wallet share using different but overlapping automated-yield mechanics.
- Stake DAO: Stake DAO provides yield-aggregating vaults and treasury management for DeFi protocols and DAOs, with multi-strategy automation. It is a direct competitor to Aera in protocol treasury management and yield optimization.
- Idle Finance: Idle is a DeFi yield aggregator offering automated yield-rebalancing strategies across lending protocols. It is comparable to Aera's Stablecoin Yield strategy and shares a similar multi-protocol rebalancing mechanism.
- Enzyme (formerly Melon): Enzyme is an on-chain asset management protocol enabling managers to deploy vaults with custom strategies. Aera's non-custodial vaults with guardian-driven strategies overlap directly with Enzyme's on-chain fund management offering.
- Set Protocol (TokenSets): Set Protocol offers automated, on-chain investment strategies (Robo Sets) that rebalance across DeFi assets. Its automated rebalancing parallels Aera's Volatility Targeting and other strategy offerings.
Emerging players
- Morpho (Blue): Morpho is a lending optimizer and one of Aera's integrated yield sources (Aera Stablecoin Yield monitors Morpho APYs). It competes in the optimized-lending layer beneath Aera's vaults but also serves as infrastructure Aera builds on.
- Tokemak: Tokemak is a liquidity management protocol that directs deposits across DeFi venues via 'reactors.' It overlaps with Aera's Protocol-Owned Liquidity and treasury strategy use cases, though the two take materially different architectural approaches.
Others
- Gauntlet: Gauntlet built Aera and provides ongoing economic research and risk modeling. While Gauntlet itself offers simulation/risk services to protocols, it is an enabling partner rather than a competitor and is critical to Aera's positioning as 'built by Gauntlet.'
Market position
Strengths5 records
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat4 records
Key risks7 records
Key highlights7 records
Customer concentration
Aera social profiles
Digital presenceAera compliance and trust
Trust signalCompliance3 records
Aera financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Aera leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Aera funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds1 record
Investors2 records
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Aera M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about Aera
What does Aera do?
Aera provides non-custodial onchain vault infrastructure for DAOs and DeFi protocols, enabling automated treasury management via configurable "guardian" agents that execute strategies off-chain while assets remain protected on-chain. The platform supports a range of treasury strategies (stablecoin yield, protocol-owned liquidity, ETH yield, volatility targeting, grants distribution, trade execution, and incentive optimization) deployed through modular SingleDepositorVault and MultiDepositorVault contracts on EVM-compatible networks.
Is Aera a public or private company?
Aera is a private company. It is classified as venture growth investor backed and is currently operating.
When was Aera founded?
Aera was founded in 2023. It employs 1 to 10 people.
Where is Aera based?
Aera is headquartered in Chicago, United States, in the North America region.
How does Aera make money?
Two revenue lines are on record. Vault Guardian Fees are the primary driver. The others are platform Services.
Who are Aera's main competitors?
Direct peers on record are Yearn Finance, Beefy Finance, Convex Finance, Stake DAO, Idle Finance, Enzyme (formerly Melon) and Set Protocol (TokenSets). Emerging players are Morpho (Blue) and Tokemak. Gauntlet is listed as an others.
Does Aera have an API?
Yes. Aera provides developer documentation and public smart contract APIs for vault management. The protocol exposes interfaces for vault operations including deposit, withdraw, submit operations, hooks configuration, and fee management. Developers can build on top of Aera through its smart contract system with documented APIs available at docs.aera.finance. The documentation includes comprehensive API references for multiple vault types including SingleDepositorVault, MultiDepositorVault, and FeeVault, along with periphery contracts like Executor, OracleRegistry, and HooksLibrary. The GitHub repository (github.com/GauntletNetworks/aera-contracts-public) contains the public smart contract code. Developer documentation is at docs.aera.finance.
What industry is Aera in?
Aera's product category is DeFi Treasury Management. Its primary akta.pro industry code is FSAPAEAG, Yield, Vaults & Asset Management (vault strategies, robo-vaults, structured yield), with a secondary code of FSADAHAL, Treasury Management & Corporate Crypto Yield Programs. Its NAICS code is 525 and its SIC code is 6199.