x15 launches deal discovery app, Cheddar

Commonwealth Bank of Australia’s (CBA) venture-scaling entity, x15ventures, has launched its newest venture, Cheddar.

Cheddar is a brand and deal discovery app that rewards Gen Z and Millennial Australians for shopping with popular brands, and helps merchants regain control of their marketing spend.

Cheddar uses artificial intelligence (AI) to help its young customers discover personalised brands, authentic content and deals, as well as rewarding them with cashback.

Similar to TikTok or Instagram, Cheddar’s AI algorithm surfaces curated, bite-sized content to young consumers who expect retailers to anticipate their needs and preferences. Cheddar exists to bring joy to deal discovery, allowing its 600+ merchants to serve up deals and offers to highly engaged and relevant consumers, at scale.

Helen Hey, Managing Director, Cheddar, said: “As an ex-marketer and e-commerce business owner, I was frustrated with how much money I was wasting acquiring customers who weren’t really engaging with my brand. Cheddar changes the model in a way that works better for both retailers and consumers. We’ve built a platform that’s native to how Gen Z approach life, not just shopping – I like to think of it as “You do you, and we’ll sort the rewards”.

“We combine social discovery, AI-driven personalisation and cashback into a fun, seamless and rewarding shopping experience. We’re focused on making young Australians’ money work harder, simply by rewarding them for being themselves and doing what they already love to do.

“As part of our pilot, we engaged more than 1,000 young Australians in our design process to create a product that delivers what they want. Merchants already using Cheddar have told us our engagement rates are significantly higher than the click through rates they see on other platforms,” she said.

Toby Norton-Smith, Managing Director, x15ventures, said: “Our research shows two distinct behaviours in Gen-Z shoppers: ‘deal hacking’ involving loyalty email signups, multiple tabs and coupon codes and ‘digital window shopping’ finding inspiration through social and branded content. Cheddar offers the benefits of both – it aggregates and serves up the best deals, but is delivered in a way that’s shareable, engaging and actually feels fun.”

“Australian retailers are innovating more rapidly than the search and social platforms that serve them – so, as we launch our MVP, we’d love to collaborate with merchants and invite them to help us build Cheddar’s roadmap”, Mr Norton-Smith said.