CommBank’s x15ventures has reportedly made a £1 million investment in order to acquire a significant minority stake in Payble, an Identitii bill payment subsidiary.
As mentioned on its official website:
“Payble™ is a better way to get paid. Improve cash collection, lower transaction costs and make failed or late payments a thing of the past. Payble is a quick and easy way for customers to set up recurring payments with your business, and is a simple, low-cost way for you to ensure funds are available, activate bill smoothing or payment plans and allow customers to alter payment methods easily when the needs arises.”
According to the terms of the deal, Identitii will be holding 51.3% of the issued capital of Payble. Meanwhile,. x15ventures will be holding 26.7% and Founding Director Elliott Donazzan will be maintaining a 7.3% stake.
Payble intends to launch with accreditation from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) to receive banking data under the government’s applicable consumer data right laws.
Payble focuses on assisting consumers with failed or late bill payments before they actually happen via Open Banking tech – which checks whether funds are available in a clients’ linked bank account before a bill needs to be paid by its due date. It also offers clients with a means to add money or change their payment information. If a client says they’ll be needing more time to make payments, then Payble also provides flexible instalment plans, bill “smoothing” or an extension of making payments.
Elliott Donazzan, CEO at Payble, stated:
“Over 500 million bills are sent to Australian consumers every year and over 75 million of those aren’t paid on time. This is a huge problem for Aussie businesses who spend time and money following up on late payments, fielding calls from customers about their billing details or retrying payments when they fail.”
This is reportedly the sixth investment for x15ventures. However, it’s actually the first minority equity stake in an existing business entity. Four other cpmpanies including Home-In, Vonto, Credit Savvy and Backr were established by CBA, while hospitality app business Doshii had been acquired.
Chris Austin, who heads CBA’s Business Development team, will take a seat on the board of directors at Payble as the bank introduces a pilot of the technology.