Commonwealth Bank of Australia’s (CBA) venture-scaling entity, x15ventures, has launched its newest venture, Cheddar, a brand and deal discovery app that rewards Gen Z and millennial Australians for shopping with popular brands
Cheddar uses artificial intelligence (AI) to help customers discover personalised brands, authentic content and deals, as well as rewarding them with cashback.
Similar to TikTok or Instagram, Cheddar’s AI algorithm surfaces curated, bite-sized content to young consumers from a market pool of 600+ merchants.
Helen Hey, managing director, Cheddar, says: "We’ve built a platform that’s native to how Gen Z approach life, not just shopping. As part of our pilot, we engaged more than 1,000 young Australians in our design process to create a product that delivers what they want. Merchants already using Cheddar have told us our engagement rates are significantly higher than the click through rates they see on other platforms.” she said.
X15’s newest venture builds on CBA’s broader shopping offering which includes the bank’s recent investment in gift card disrupter, Karta, its partnership with online shopping hub, Little Birdie, 50:50 partnership with Klarna Australia and its cashback programe, CommBank Rewards. It also utilises the bank’s partnership with artifical intelligence outfit H2O.ai, in which the bank led a $100 million funding round earlier this month.
Separately x15ventures has poured an additional $700,000 into its joint venture fintech Payble. The startup is a subsidiary of Sydney-based Identitii, which uses blockchain and tokenisation to connect banks and businesses with the data for payments, in a joint venture with x15.