Aven just announced a $110M Series E at a $2.2B valuation to expand from its home-equity card into mortgage refinancing and build a full “machine banking” platform. (Source: Aven Press Release and Company Site)
Here’s what that signal means for Customer Success, and the fast plays you can ship this week.
What Is “Machine Banking”?
In simple terms: automated, asset-aware lending.
Data, models, and underwriting run in the background so borrowers get faster approvals, lower costs, and fewer hand-offs.
Aven proved it with a HELOC-backed card and is now taking the same speed to mortgages.
Why This Matters For Customer Success
Speed Becomes Non-Negotiable:
If lenders can approve in minutes, your customers will expect time-to-first-value to shrink, too.
Operations Beat Opinions:
When price competition rises, frictionless onboarding, billing, and support become the moat.
Better Signals, Fewer Surprises:
Tie health to value events (savings, activation, expansion) rather than clicks alone.
Cross-Product Journeys:
As Aven moves from cards to mortgages, customers expect one journey across products. CS owns that continuity.
What To Do This Week
Stand Up Revenue-Saving Alerts
Deploy a small set of alerts that catch risk and surface expansion early. Steal the patterns from 15 Churn Alerts Every CS Leader Needs to protect big renewals and spot upsell moments.Tighten Your Playbook
Standardize owners, SLAs, and proof points across onboarding → value → expansion using Create a Winning Customer Success Playbook Template. On a lean budget? Pair it with Build a Budget-Friendly Customer Success Playbook Today.Compress Time-To-First-Value
Borrow short, repeatable wins from my breakdowns. Native automation is moving inside the tools your teams already use—see Motion’s $60M Raise: What It Means For Customer Success and map two “agent-able” steps in your onboarding.Prove The Money Story With NRR
Leaders fund what they can see. Use the Net Revenue Retention (NRR) Calculator for SaaS (and the CS Calculators hub) to show lift from saves, expansions, and contraction prevention.Kill Hidden Billing Friction
Invoice errors and slow refunds masquerade as “product churn.” Run the 30-60-90 fix from Rillet $70M: Kill Billing Friction, Protect Renewals and add finance signals to every Success Plan.
Bonus Plays For Your Team
Turn Feature Requests Into Revenue:
Use battle-tested scripts and workflows from Turn Feature Requests Into Revenue.
Catch Quiet Risk Early:
Train the team on subtle language patterns with Silent Churn Detection: The QUIET Method.
See What’s Working For Peers:
Browse the full archive for current CS plays tied to funding and product shifts.
What This Signals For CS Leaders
Funding is chasing faster value, fewer steps, and measurable outcomes.
That’s your roadmap: shrink time-to-value, automate inside the workflow, and prove the revenue story every month.
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—Hakan | Founder, The Customer Success Café Weekly Newsletter