Australia-based financial services firm National Australia Bank (NAB) has launched a A$50m ($36.5m) corporate venturing fund called NAB Ventures, the Sydney Morning Herad has reported.
NAB Ventures will target equity investments in, and partnerships with, companies developing mobile financial technology platforms, payments technology and data analytics software.
The unit will be run by NAB Labs, the innovation hub formed by the bank in 2015. It follows the launch of a strategic investment unit by another Australian bank, AMP, in March this year, and the A$50m investment by Westpac in VC fund Reinventure Group in 2014.
Antony Cahill, head of head of products and markets for NAB, told SMH: “We do not fear disruption. We need to embrace it and understand how do we give the best possible experience to our customers.
“Traditional models of banking are changing. There are new ideas and thinking identifying how the banking model can change.
“We are not saying [disrupters] are the enemy. We are saying if we can find the right companies to work with, even though they might be approaching the banking model in a different way, if they present new, innovative solutions that give a better experience to customers then we will be talking to them.”