x15ventures (x15), which is Commonwealth Bank of Australia‘s venture-scaling division, has introduced a stand-alone or independent platform for helping new digital initiatives and business owners with fulfilling regulatory, risk and compliance requirements – which are part of scaling operations.
The “xStack” platform is based on a tech platform that operates separately from CBA’s core banking infrastructure, and has been specifically developed to support firms with enhancing operations while ensuring that they adhere to the regulatory and security requirements of the banking sector.
Toby Norton-Smith, MD at x15ventures, stated:
“We see it as an enterprise grade ‘venture-in-a-box’ platform by embedding bank-grade security protocols. And although we’re not prescriptive about the core product technology for a venture, we do see huge benefits in common workflow and coding repository tools that allow ventures and x15 to interact. We will provide a venture with a set of core technology services — infrastructure, standard tooling and workplace — so from day one they can actually focus on their business.”
Toby added:
“It buys you a ticket to access CBA’s assets and that is really what we have been trying to crack.”
He also noted that if they are able to figure out that code, then xStack may become a viable commercial product in itself.
He added that he’s looking forward to “having enterprise customers of xStack beyond CBA when [they] are finished with it, and they don’t have to be just Australian.”
CBA established x15 in February of last year, with the mission to launch 25 new Fintech initiatives during the next five years of operations. To date, x15 has reportedly helped launch, invested-in or has acquired six businesses with more expected to be announced this year.
Toby added:
“We’re not a corporate venture capital vehicle, and we’re not incentivized or focused on passive minority investment positions. Writing a cheque to invest in a venture is actually one of the easier things you can do in corporate venturing. What’s harder to do is to explicitly deliver a commercial benefit to that venture. Getting our ventures technically scalable and regulatory safe means we can then move more quickly to distribute them to CBA’s customer base, or leverage the CommBank brand to promote their service.”