The National Australia Bank is committing an additional $50m to its FinTech-focused venture capital division.
With this capital boost, NAB Ventures has a capital of pool of $100m which will see it until 2020.
The venture division was announced three years ago and was initially deployed with $50m in 2015. Over this time, it has invested into 12 FinTech startups both locally and internationally.
NAB Ventures is a global investor which looks to support the development of technology companies which can leverage the bank’s expertise, assets and market position to drive growth.
There are four key investment themes for NAB, connected businesses, home ownership, a cashless world and empowered investment. Its connected business focus is based around solutions that can help SMEs manage all their finances such as banking, tax, payroll and invoicing. Under its homeownership theme, NAB looks to enterprises supporting customers find, buy and manage their homes.
Companies building digital payments solutions, real-time payments, digital wallets and blockchain solutions and companies supporting empowered investments and wealth management are also of interest to NAB.
Canada-based digital accounting and payroll platform Wave is currently in the Nab Ventures portfolio. The firm took part in the $24m funding round of Wave last year.
Other businesses in Nab’s portfolio include healthcare payments solution developer Medipass Solutions, financial data platform Basiq, property investment startup BrickX and B2B payments network Veem.
NAB Ventures managing director Todd Forest said, “Beyond financial capital, we work with our portfolio companies to establish collaboration within NAB and create opportunities to drive positive outcomes for all stakeholders.
“We are focused on delivering long term strategic benefits, in working with start-ups from the bottom up and optimising opportunities to drive value into NAB, whether by efficiency gains or enhancing the customer experience.”
Copyright © 2018 FinTech Global
