Sonar, a local Y-Combinator startup, managed to build a unique social media experience, where users could buy emojis as NFTs and interact with others in a virtual grid, creating music together or playing games.
Now the San Francisco-based Web3 startup is being acquired by the social media wing of London crypto company Aave for an undisclosed amount.
Aave's Lens Protocol offers decentralized identities for users that are stored on the blockchain so they can control access to their own data. Other social media apps can build on top of the Lens Protocol and use one identity across different applications.
Lens will integrate Sonar into its ecosystem following the acquisition, and Sonar users will have 14 days to create a new account identity on Lens.
Sonar was launched out of Y-combinator's Summer 2020 cohort and has raised $150,000 to date.
“We love Aave’s approach to social media through the Lens Protocol. It just became clear to us that all the building blocks to truly transform the way we connect online are right there on Lens,” said Ben South Lee, co-founder of Sonar in a press statement. "We want to help figure out the right combinations that are approachable and familiar to anyone — starting with Sonar!”
As part of the acquisition, Lee will take on the role of senior vice president of product and design at the Aave Companies. Lee's brother Randlolph Lee, Sonar's head of growth Armand Saramout, and engineer Paul Xu will also join Aave to develop consumer mobile applications for Lens Protocol that are expected to come out next year.
