Commonwealth Bank of Australia’s venture arm X15 Ventures has launched Backr, a new app designed to help first-time business owners to start trading quickly.
Backr is X15 Ventures’ fourth venture to have been launched since its introduction in February this year.
The Backr app, which will be available from this September, provides digital, task-based approach to start a small business.
It will offer guidance to users through step-by-stop processes which include business business registrations, business plan formulation, invoice creation to help them begin trading quickly and with ease.
The app has been designed to be used for early stages of a business’ life, targeting small businesses and new entrepreneurs.
CBA partners with Square Peg and Zetta Venture Partners
CBA has also partnered with Square Peg and Zetta Venture Partners to support local fintechs, along with the development of artificial intelligence businesses in Australia.
Square Peg is an Australian venture capital fund and it will partner with X15 on sourcing, scaling and financing fintechs in Australia, Zetta Venture Partners is an American fund that invests purely in firms developing artificial intelligence.
Commonwealth Bank CEO Matt Comyn said: “Through Backr, we hope to help thousands of new digitally enabled small businesses get off the ground. This is now more important than ever given the need to drive the economic recovery. To support this initiative, CBA will deposit A$500 ($357) into the account of any eligible business launched through Backr, until the end of 2020.
“We’re also delighted to welcome Square Peg and Zetta as strategic partners and look forward to working with them to bring new solutions to our customers, harnessing the latest technologies, artificial intelligence, and machine learning models.”
Commonwealth Bank has also announced that more than 6.1 million of its customers are now using the CommBank app, up 500,000 from 5.6 million in the FY19.
Through the app, more than AUD1.2bn ($856.8m) are now being transacted every day, while daily logins have crossed 6.3 million, the bank said.
Comyn continued saying: “Our digital services have helped us to provide fast and effective financial support to our customers affected by the Coronavirus.
“Since the start of the pandemic, we have connected with more than 7 million customers through the CommBank App and there has been more than 2 million unique views of our coronavirus support page.”
