‘Buy to earn’ fintech Hello Clever bags $4.5 million seed round

Fresh fintech startup Hello Clever has completed a $4.5 million seed funding round, driving its plan to lure millennial and Gen Z customers away from buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) services while pioneering in the use of Australia’s new PayTo technology.

Founded in 2021 by Caroline Tran and Gavin Nguyen, Sydney-based Hello Clever bills itself as a payment and financial management platform that rewards users every time they spend at select merchants.

Unlike buy now pay later options, which reward instant gratification, Hello Clever’s instant cashback ‘buy to earn’ model is aimed at young budgeters who still want extra benefits when they finally make a purchase.

For the sellers who choose to use the system, Hello Clever claims it can deliver a stream of dedicated customers.

Hello Clever also hosts tracking features for consumers to manage their spending, plus payments for social media and QR code invoicing options for businesses.

Tran, himself a millennial, tells SmartCompany it was important to create a “centralized place to really empower people to really be good with their money”.

“What we’re trying to do is really democratize, and also really simplify everything in one place for our customers,” she says, without Hello Clever trying to be a bank per se.

The structure of Hello Clever’s buy-to-earn model also suggests that the startup may be partially shielded from rising interest rates, which significantly affect buy-now, pay-later providers that rely on short-term funding to finance their pay-as-you-go services .

That pitch was good enough for Hong Kong-based Vectr Fintech Partners, which led the seed round, and participants included CrossFund, Magnivia Ventures and Yolo Investments—an apt name for a venture capital firm targeting millennial consumers.

“I think we’re pretty lucky compared to our peers,” Tran says of the funding effort, given the dramatic decline in venture market sentiment through mid-2022.

“But there are still VCs out there who still really believe in investing in potential fintechs and potential products,” she adds.

Tran said Hello Clever will use the funding to increase its reach beyond the 30,000 users it already hosts and the 200 merchants already signed up for Hello Clever checkout options.

“We want to grow and really adapt, and of course educate the market more about this new payment system [for] younger audience in Australia, she says.

The startup also intends to hire developers and designers to strengthen its product offering.

It could include features built around Australia’s new PayTo system, which allows users to pre-authorize real-time payments between bank accounts.

Days before unveiling its seed funding round, Hello Clever’s system facilitated the nation’s first PayTo payment, conducted by the Reserve Bank of Australia.

“It’s a new technology and people don’t really know what it’s all about, so you have to kind of motivate them to really use this payment method,” says Tran.

“It’s perfect for our business model because we’re an all-digital platform, so it just makes sense.”