Commonwealth Bank’s venture-scale arm, x15ventures, has selected four payment startups as finalists for the Xccelerate22 program.
The four – paytron, You pay, Cape and persolo – were chosen from 16 fintechs chosen two weeks ago to participate in the Xccelerate Community Day, who then took part in a deep dive known as the Pathway to Partnership Day, which explored what a strategic partnership with a corporate institution looks like .
This Thursday, the five startups will pitch to an investment committee of representatives from x15, CBA and additional Australian CVCs and VCs, followed by a networking event, where x15 will announce an investment decision.
This year, x15 is not looking for an ultimate winner and may support more than one of the startups involved.
x15ventures MD Toby Norton-Smith said that in its third year, the Xccelerate program has a strong track record of finding and supporting great startups – givvable and OwnHome in 2020, and Splashup last year.
“The caliber of applications was even higher this time around – possibly reflecting the market context, but also the value of our proposition, which helps enterprises devise alternative routes to scale up and lifts the lid on strategic partnerships,” he said. .
“With CBA’s continued commitment to the retail ecosystem, it was exciting to connect with payment innovators who could further deepen the relationship between merchants and consumers.”
Portfolio director Laura Faulconer said Xccelerate is about building the relationships that could support a future strategic partnership with the bank.
“We’re now halfway through the program and it’s been a pleasure to keep room for the many meaningful connections and conversations — after all, partnerships are about people,” she said.
There is a lot of buzz around our last five teams and we look forward to exploring how each strategic partnership could take shape when they pitch to our investment committee.”
Here are the details about the four startups involved:
| Cape | Expense management and finance automation platform designed to help businesses reduce wasteful spending |
| paytron | All-in-one treasury, payment, and expense management solution for businesses |
| persolo | Instant checkout and lead generation platform |
| You pay | eCommerce payment gateway that separates the payer from the payer, secure and private |
