CBA takes 20% stake in gift card startup Karta

The partnership will include CBA investing new capital in Karta in exchange for a 20 per cent shareholding in the Australian-based company.

Karta is a start-up gift card platform developed by a team of gift card and payments experts. Karta brings together technology and gifting experiences to simplify gift cards for consumers and businesses.

The partnership with Karta strengthens CommBank’s Shopping offering following the Group’s investment in online shopping hub, Little Birdie, earlier this year. CBA’s Shopping offering also comprises its 50-50 joint venture with Klarna Australia and the bank’s cashback program, CommBank Rewards.

Kate Crous, CBA’s Executive General Manager, Everyday Banking, said: “Shopping is an area where consumers expect more sophisticated offerings and experiences.

“We want to reimagine the shopping experiences for Australians. Simplifying the purchase, delivery and use of gift cards and enabling more businesses to participate in this market will enable CBA customers to better support businesses they love.

“Through our new partnership with Karta, we will revolutionise gift cards as we know them by allowing consumers to purchase a gift card from any participating business, gift it electronically to anyone, anywhere. And their friend or loved one can redeem it from their digital wallet anytime.

“By bringing together our market-leading CommBank app, rich customer data and extensive business relationships, we can create more personalised shopping experiences for consumers and businesses. And we expect to continue to evolve our Shopping offering,” Ms Crous said.

David Anderson, Karta CEO said: “Gift cards are a core part of the shopping experience and it is estimated that the pre-paid card market in Australia will grow to $40 billion in the next five years. While gift cards have existed for nearly 30 years, they have not evolved to meet consumer needs and preferences as they have transitioned to online shopping and digital payments.

“Consumers and businesses are often left frustrated by restrictive expiry dates, burdensome costs to administer gift cards, wastage on cards, as well as the costly investment to integrate gifting into merchant systems. Technology has changed but gifting has not.

“Karta’s technology platform is scalable globally and is bolstered by a multi-year strategic partnership with Mastercard, leveraging the payment company’s network and tokenisation technology. This means that Karta gift cards can be used at any participating business that accepts Mastercard, with no integration needed at the point of sale what-so-ever,” Mr Anderson said.

With Karta the gifting experience has clear benefits for both consumers and businesses. These include:

Shoppers can purchase gift cards from any participating retailer digitally and physically;
This new strategic partnership will also help to drive leads to businesses; and
There are no integration costs for businesses.
Karta will be available to shoppers from early 2022.