x15 - A Fintech Rebrand Made to Scale

Setting the scene

x15ventures is a venture scaler powered by Commonwealth Bank of Australia. It was set up in 2020 to scale early-stage ventures that could help reimagine the bank’s products and services, benefiting the bank’s 15 (now 16) million customers and beyond. To achieve this, x15 occupies a space that is neither corporate, nor startup. In fact, it’s very intentionally somewhere between the two – close enough for x15 and its ventures to benefit from CommBank’s strategy, scale and stability, but separate enough that it has the autonomy to try new things.

Challenge

Although x15 had launched a number of ventures, its proposition – including its mandate to build, buy and invest – was often misunderstood (lumped in with other corporate venturing models), inconsistently articulated, and no longer an accurate reflection of what the business had become. To complicate matters further, x15’s audiences are many. It needed a flexible yet recognisable brand system that would help distinguish x15 in market, particularly with the talent it required to build the next generation of digital solutions, but also founders, its peers in the venture capital industry, and audiences inside CommBank.

Strategy

The odds that an Australian startup launched four years ago is still operating today are apparently the same as flipping a coin. So not exactly great. Our strategy focused on demonstrating the brilliant collision of corporate and venture worlds, and the unique mix of benefits x15 is able to offer by occupying the space between both. Our strategy led to the proposition of “access advantage” — that with x15 beside you (whether you’re part of a venture, a core team member, or founder team team), you benefit from both the security and freedom to innovate, and ultimately shape the future.

Taking this one step further, our design partners at Universal Favourite were inspired by the notion that x15 was ‘made to scale’ more than just ventures. In doing so, it was also helping to scale dreams, ideas and careers – giving its people the space they needed to experiment, grow and thrive. The brand system designed by Universal Favourite therefore also has expansion and scale at its core.

Impact

Anchored by a powerful strategic foundation, the rebrand has given the x15 team a simple, flexible and modern design system that can stretch to a wide range of applications (social, web, event collateral, etc.) With a clearly defined brand strategy and refined proposition, x15ventures now looks, sounds and feels like a brand that’s ready to help shape the future of a generation.