Commonwealth Bank of Australia has launched a standalone startup incubator, X15 Ventures, to create and nurture new digital businesses that bring added value to the bank's core business.
The bank is partnering with Microsoft and KPMG High growth ventures for the new venture, with funding provided from CBA’s $1 billion annual technology budget.
Microsoft will bring its platform and engineering capability to the initiative, while KPMG will provide advisory services.
The first two venture to emerge from the stable are a digital home-buying concierge dubbed Home-In, and Vonto, a free app available to all small business owners that draws data from Xero, Google Analytics, and Shopify among other to provide aggregated business insights
X15 Ventures, MD Toby Norton-Smith says: “X15 businesses will be nurtured and developed as start-ups but will have the scale and reach of CBA behind them to achieve rapid growth. We intend to launch at least 25 ventures over the next five years.”