Creator of Avalanche, a competitor to Ethereum, the most popular decentralized blockchain platform that applications can run on top of. Over the past year, more than 500 decentralized finance apps have been built on Avalanche, which can process 4,500 transactions per second, compared to just 14 per second for Ethereum.<p>Funding: $6 million from Andreessen Horowitz, Polychain, Initialized Capital and others. </p><p>Bona fides: Over 2.4 million users; Avalanche’s token AVAX has an $8.5 billion market capitalization.</p><p>Cofounders: CEO Emin Gün Sirer, 50, former Cornell University computer science professor known for his research on distributed systems; COO Kevin Sekniqi, 28; chief protocol architect Ted Yin, 27.</p>
Public company, workplace, funding, and market signals
Updated Aug 16, 2026
Ava Labs is a privately held blockchain technology company founded by Cornell computer scientists and focused on making it easier for organizations and developers to build, deploy, and operate high-performance decentralized applications and customized blockchains. It is the primary corporate contributor behind the Avalanche ecosystem.
Primary product
Avalanche blockchain infrastructure and AvaCloud, a managed platform for deploying customizable Avalanche Layer 1 blockchains.
Founded
2018
Headquarters
New York, New York, United States
Team size
151-200
Industry
Software Development
Sub-industry
Blockchain infrastructure, Web3, distributed systems, and enterprise software
Offices
Business model
Stage
Late-stage private company
Total raised
$640M
May 2024
Venture round / private token sale
Jan 2021 · Polychain Capital and Three Arrows Capital
Jan 2020
Feb 2019
Leadership
Founder and Chief Executive Officer
President
Chief Business Officer
Head of Asia
Roi Hirata
Head of Japan
Simon Jones
Creative Director
Lydia Chiu
Interim Chief Financial Officer
Dominic Carbonaro
Director of Ecosystem Growth, Enterprise & Retail
Meghan Gardler Murtagh
Director of Growth Marketing
Public company materials describe a technically ambitious, Web3-focused organization emphasizing open-source development, high performance, enterprise adoption, and a relatively nimble operating style. The CEO has described the company as aiming to retain the speed and energy of a small team. Public employer data reports an overall rating of approximately 4.3/5, but detailed benefits and culture claims were not independently confirmed from Ava Labs primary materials.
Compensation
Publicly verified compensation bands were not found. Third-party employer data reports a compensation rating of approximately 4.5/5, but this is not a disclosed salary range and should be treated as a weak signal.
Pricing
AvaCloud pricing is primarily sales-led and enterprise-oriented; public materials promote inquiries and product walkthroughs rather than publishing standard pricing. Testnet usage for some AvaCloud features has been described as free, while production deployments appear to be quoted according to requirements.
Differentiators
Technology
Customers
Competitors
Ava Labs confirmed a reduction affecting 12% of its workforce, describing the move as a resource reallocation during the crypto bear market. Reporting indicated that marketing and communications teams were significantly affected.
SourceAva Labs submitted a proposal to the SEC concerning regulatory treatment of protocol tokens, indicating continuing regulatory exposure for the company and the broader Avalanche ecosystem.
SourceAnimoca Brands · Mar 2026
Animoca Brands and Ava Labs announced a collaboration involving strategic investment, product integrations, and advisory support for projects building on Avalanche, initially emphasizing entertainment, real-world assets, and digital identity in Asia and the Middle East.
Avalanche / Ava Labs · Nov 2025
FIS and Intain launched a digital liquidity marketplace built on an Avalanche Layer 1 and supported by AvaCloud, targeting loan portfolio transactions for regional and community banks.
Avalanche / Ava Labs · May 2025
FIFA announced that it would launch a custom Avalanche Layer 1, beginning with the migration of its FIFA Collect digital collectibles platform.
Avalanche / Ava Labs · Apr 2025
SMBC, Fireblocks, Ava Labs, and TIS signed an MoU to explore stablecoin infrastructure for wholesale payments, tokenized assets, and related financial use cases in Japan and internationally.
Avalanche / AvaCloud · Mar 2025
AvaCloud announced eERC, a token standard designed to support confidential transfers while preserving auditability for permissioned and permissionless blockchain deployments.
6 jobs at Ava Labs