Hello Clever, an Australia-based ‘Buy-to-Earn’ company that gives consumers real-time cashback, has secured A$4.5 million via seed funding round.
The investment round has been led by Vectr Fintech Partners along with contributions from CrossFund, Yolo Investments, Magnivia Ventures, Son Tech Ventures, Boson Ventures and several angel investors.
Established last year, Hello Clever is a payments and financial management platform that’s focused on serving Australia’s Gen Z that is considered to be an alternative to debt-based BNPL platforms.
At its center is an API enabled by Australia‘s Payments Platform (NPP) and the associated PayTo and PayID services.
The API allows Hello Clever to offer real-time cash back for clients when they make purchases at participating merchants and enables clients to track their spending across several different banking accounts in real-time.
The firm leverages Open Banking, fast payments, and AI tech in order to assist consumers with identifying the best or appropriate merchants for their requirements while ensuring they get rewards.
Lead investor Mark Munoz said:
“We forecast Hello Clever being able to grow into Southeast Asia through Philippines, Indonesia, and Vietnam. These are all large markets with big, young, and tech-savvy populations that can benefit enormously from a payment solution like Hello Clever.”
As noted by the firm’s management, 2022 has been an exciting year an they “have been working diligently to launch [their] full suite of products and now [they claim to] have achieved a significant milestone — being the first company to pioneer ‘Buy to Earn’ or a new category in payments that democratizes rewards in a different way.”
The company added that the economics of scale “is indeed exciting as [they] have seen strong demand over the past six months and [they] have finally joined the ‘industry disruptors’ club, lifting the needle to shake up an old industry that is worth $500 billions in Australia alone.”