Early-stage-venture givvable has won $150,000 in funding from the Commonwealth Bank through its start-up development business, X15Ventures. The new business has also been accepted into Microsoft’s social entrepreneurship program.
The technology platform, co-founded by sisters Frances Atkins and Naomi Vowels, helps companies source suppliers that pursue sustainability goals and track the impact of their spending. The flipside is the platform’s ability to connect micro, small and medium-sized enterprises with corporate buyers, which often have a preference for engaging with businesses that can demonstrate a sustainable mindset to meet their own sustainability targets.
givvable also taps into the emerging trend of the circular economy, which aims to ensure companies consider the whole lifecycle of a product to reduce waste and improve the potential for products and their parts to be recycled.
The sisters ’focus now is to work with partners who wish to test the solution before the formal launch of the enterprise next year. “We have five large partners in different industries. So we will be developing the tech this year, iterating and continuing to test both on the corporate and supplier side,” says Atkins. Long-term, they have global ambitions.
Toby Norton-Smith, the managing director of X15 Ventures, explains the business he runs is a ‘venture building outfit’, launched in February, which has the backing of CBA, Microsoft and KPMG High Growth Ventures. Microsoft will provide givvable with $150,000 of in-kind tech support. He says CBA will also introduce the founders to the bank’s procurement arm.
“We're about unlocking new ways to get value out of CBA's assets, as well as resetting how we can partner and engage with the innovation community.” He says it’s been an interesting time.
“From one perspective, COVID has been devastating to lives and livelihoods. But it’s a rare opportunity to reimagine what business models should look like; what customers and businesses and governments really want. So we've got a sharpened sense of purpose because of that. We're lucky we've got the backing of a big bank. It's translated into a team that is working happily and very, very hard to bring out some new ventures.”
Norton-Smith says X15 Ventures doesn’t fit neatly into the accepted definition of an accelerator, incubator or corporate venture capital vehicle. “We're about providing hands-on support and funding for new ventures through every stage of their growth. So we call ourselves a venture builder to make it clear we're here to provide support in tangible ways. Some of our early ventures are already integrated into the CBA app.”
Credit score checker and loan aggregator CreditSavvy is an example. Using its technology, CBA customers can find out more about their credit score and look at ways they might improve it, through the CBA app for free. It’s had a record number of new customer registrations for three straight months. “It’s a great example of CBA supercharging a business, which is fast approaching one million customers,” says Norton-Smith.
givvable won CBA’s backing through a new initiative called Xccelerate2020. Norton-Smith says more than 100 early stage ventures applied for the program, of which 10 were selected to take part. During four weeks each went through a process of continuous evaluation. They were also mentored and advised by CBA, Microsoft and KPMG, among others, The initiative culminated in a pitching day, held remotely, where 15 experts judged each pitch.
Norton-Smith stresses bank customers are an important stakeholder for givvable. “We have more than 800,000 small businesses and a lot of them are crying out for a platform that simplifies what they do for big corporate buyers. There’s just so much potential for something like this.”
