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 banking relationships most fintechs assemble as they enter new markets.
Hello Clever supports more than 1,000 merchants and close to two million users across 22 markets, accepting over 50 payment methods and processing over $2 billion in total value. Its merchants span eCommerce, financial services, travel and professional services in Australia, and the US.
Under the partnership, Banking Circle provides Hello Clever with AUD Virtual Accounts, allowing merchants to receive funds through Australia’s New Payments Platform (NPP) and other real time payment methods. Each merchant sits behind its own dedicated account structure, which makes payments easier to attribute and reconcile.
Hello Clever Founder and CEO Caroline Tran said the partnership removes a barrier that slows most payment businesses down as they grow.
“Payments get harder every time you add a market. New provider, new integration, new set of rules — and funds sitting in the wrong country or the wrong currency,” Tran said.
“Going direct to bank is what makes the offering competitive, because it takes cost and delay out of the transaction rather than adding another layer to it. We’ve proven that model in Australia, and we chose Banking Circle because it lets us hold the same standard in every market we move into next.”
The arrangement supports Hello Clever’s ambition to become an AI-powered global payment enabler, connecting merchants to any market, currency and payment rail through a single platform.
“We want payments to stop being a cost of doing business and start driving growth, engagement and loyalty,” Tran said. “That only works if the infrastructure underneath is global from day one.”
Hello Clever crew at Intersekt/26 in Melbourne this year
Reinard Surya, Chief Operating Officer at Hello Clever added: “Our partnership with Banking Circle will play an important role in helping Hello Clever build the financial infrastructure behind our global ambitions.
“As we expand across markets, having banking infrastructure that can support efficient, reliable cross-border money movement allows us to focus on what we do best: creating better payment experiences for businesses and their customers. We see this partnership as an important part of building Hello Clever into a truly global payments platform.”
The news follows the company’s appointment of Justin Grooms as President. The role tasks him with driving global growth, scaling revenue operations and building the industry’s first genuinely AI-powered consumer-payments interface. Grooms joined from a US one-click checkout company, where he served as President and CEO.
His appointment came as the United States builds out its real-time payment infrastructure at speed, with the Federal Reserve’s FedNow service now connecting more than 1,500 financial institutions and The Clearing House’s RTP network handling around 1.36 million transactions a day.
It also follows Hello Clever’s launch of Clever Connect, a real-time payments platform built for businesses that move money to more than one party, targeted at SaaS platforms, marketplaces, gig economy apps and cross-border operators.
Clever Connect gives every merchant and revenue stream its own dedicated account, connects that account directly to each market’s real-time payment rails, and bundles local virtual accounts and local-currency treasury into a single integration. It launched with local treasury accounts live in Japan and Australia, and the United States to follow.
About Hello Clever
Hello Clever is a Sydney-based fintech building real-time payment infrastructure for businesses. Founded in 2021 by Caroline Tran and Gavin Nguyen, the company connects merchants and platforms directly to local payment rails so money moves instantly, settles cleanly, and is easier to track. Its platform combines real-time payments, built-in loyalty and AI-powered insights, and is PCI DSS and SOC compliant. Hello Clever’s mission is to turn payments from a cost centre into an engine for growth.
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