Category: News
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Variant Backs Hello Clever to Build the Exchange for Money Movement
Sydney, Australia — Hello Clever today announced a new strategic investment led by Variant, alongside Easygo and a group of strategic operators, as the company accelerates its ambition to build the exchange for global money movement. The investment comes as Hello Clever approaches a major milestone: racing toward $100 million in annual recurring revenue while…
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Hello Clever partners with Banking Circle to power global payments for merchants
Hello Clever has partnered with Banking Circle to expand the payment, settlement and treasury services it delivers to merchants in Australia and internationally. The partnership provides the banking infrastructure behind Hello Clever’s global expansion, giving the company a single platform for domestic collections, merchant settlement, treasury and cross-border payments. All in place of the multiple…
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Introducing Clever Connect: payment infrastructure built for the way platforms actually operate
Platforms and marketplaces are on track to drive 53% of all ecommerce growth by 2030 (Cymbio, 2025). As more commerce shifts from individual merchants to platforms, the payment infrastructure sitting underneath those platforms is becoming one of the more consequential decisions they make. For an individual platform, it becomes a growth lever if the infrastructure…
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Hello Clever appoints Justin Grooms as President
The former Bolt president joins the Australian real-time payments company to drive global growth and build the first truly AI-powered, agent-first consumer-payments experience. Global real-time payments company, Hello Clever, today announced the appointment of Justin Grooms as President. Grooms joins with a mandate to drive growth, scale the company’s global revenue operations and build a…
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Three Awards, One Night: The Best Finnies Yet for Hello Clever
At the 2026 Fintech Australia Finnie Awards, Hello Clever took home three awards. More than any other business on the night. Best Workplace Diversity, Excellence in Establishing a Global Presence, and Outstanding Fintech Leader of the Year for our CEO Caroline Tran. It is our strongest Finnies performance to date, building on Emerging FinTech of…
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The surcharge ban is coming. Here’s why clever merchants are moving to real-time payments now.
From 1 October 2026, card surcharges are banned in Australia. If you’re currently surcharging, you lose the ability to recover card processing fees at the point of sale. Either way, October forces a question most merchants haven’t had to answer directly yet: what would it look like to reduce your dependence on card networks altogether?…
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Shoppers are asking AI what to buy. Clever Shop makes your products the answer.
A growing number of shoppers have stopped opening Google and shopping apps, and started opening ChatGPT instead. According to PYMNTS’ ‘From Assistive to Agentic AI: Consumers Wade Into Autonomous Commerce’ Report (2026), 70% of consumers are saying yes to AI agents for shopping. They type ‘Give me recommendations for the best running shoes for my…
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Hello Clever and GMO Aozora Net Bank Announce Transactional API Integration to Enable Payment Capability in Japan for Global Businesses
Hello Clever has announced an integration with GMO Aozora Net Bank’s transaction API to support local payment capability in Japan for global businesses operating in one of the world’s most complex payment markets. Japan is a critical hub for global commerce, but one where payments infrastructure demands local trust, regulatory alignment, and long-term commitment. As…
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Top 5 Payment Trends for 2026 (and what they mean for merchants who want to win).
2026 isn’t just “another year of payments innovation.” It’s the year payments fully graduate from plumbing to powerhouse, no longer background infrastructure, but a core driver of conversion, retention, and smarter growth. Digital payments already rewired commerce. Over the past decade, they’ve moved from a minority of global ecommerce value to the dominant form of…
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This Year Wasn’t Just Growth. We Made the Leap.
2025 was the year we made the leap — a defining chapter in Hello Clever’s story. It was the year we turned ambition into intelligence and momentum into movement. A year that stretched us beyond what we knew — into new ideas, new markets, and new possibilities for how payments can power growth. When we…