CBA's start-up venture X15 partners with KPMG and Microsoft

Commonwealth Bank (CBA), one of Australia’s major banks, is looking to tap into the burgeoning financial technology (FinTech) market across the country through the launch of a FinTech startup incubator X15 Ventures. Growth and technical expertise for the new venture is being sourced from KPMG and Microsoft.

X15 Ventures is an ambitious project, aiming to get five FinTech businesses up and running over the course of this year alone, and 25 businesses operational over the next five years. CBA has an existing yearly technology investment fund worth $1 billion, part of which will fund X15 ventures. The exact amount allocated to the fund has not been disclosed.

The new incubator has hit the ground running, having already snapped up two startups to participate. The first, Home-In, is an online service designed to simplify residential real estate transactions. The second is a free of cost application that generates analytical business insights for businesses in Australia.

As these firms look to the next phase of growth under X15’s umbrella, Microsoft will support the participating firms with tech development, while financial expertise will come from Big Four accounting and advisory firm KPMG.

The move comes amid a rapidly expanding FinTech market across Australia. Major banks in the country are struggling with a variety of market factors, and are being threatened by the emergence of FinTech players, in particular in the retail banking and investment segments. The heavy legacy systems of the major banks are a major bottleneck to their ambitions in building an agile and flexible operation

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Source: CBA’s start-up venture X15 partners with KPMG and Microsoft