Hello Clever Tops 2026 Smart50 on $17 Million Revenue, 307% CAGR

By Daniel Okafor

Hello Clever topped the 2026 Smart50 Awards with $17 million in 2025-26 revenue and a 307% compound annual growth rate over three years, according to the awards.

The 2026 Smart50 Awards placed the Sydney-founded fintech first on the overall list. Hello Clever combines card-free payments, loyalty programs and customer intelligence.

What drove the top ranking?

The No. 1 overall ranking rewarded a business built around card-free payments, while a separate Innovator Award recognized the company’s technical approach to replacing conventional card transactions. Judges recognized its “pioneering approach to alternative payment systems.” Hello Clever and other leading figures in Australia’s small-business and startup sector were honored at the gala in Melbourne on Thursday night.

According to the Smart50 Awards, Caroline Tran and Gavin Nguyen founded Hello Clever in 2021. The company sought to challenge traditional payment methods and Australia’s reliance on card transactions. Rather than build on card-payment rails, the startup delivered Australia’s first customer-to-business transaction through the cardless PayTo service.

How does the cardless model work?

Hello Clever then combined real-time payment systems with loyalty programs. Its “buy-to-earn” offering turns merchant savings on card-processing fees into instant customer cashback. The mechanism links both sides of the transaction by using card-processing savings to fund an immediate customer reward.

That sequence adds a consumer incentive to a transaction that does not use conventional card rails, because PayTo supplies the customer-to-business leg while the loyalty layer rewards activity around it. The approach directs a stated merchant saving directly to the customer.

Hello Clever has processed $3.5 billion in transactions for clients. That figure measures payment activity to date, while the $17 million reflects revenue for 2025-26. The two numbers describe different parts of the business: transaction throughput on one side, recorded sales on the other.

What has Hello Clever built beyond Australia?

Hello Clever says it holds its own Australian financial services license and has offices in Singapore, Tokyo, Ho Chi Minh City and New York. Its payment gateway lets merchants accept transactions worldwide through one integration. Clever Connect gives more sophisticated businesses a system to track how, when and where transactions move.

The gateway and Clever Connect serve separate operating needs. The first opens access to transactions across borders; the second gives businesses a way to follow transaction movement.

Together, the gateway and Clever Connect extend the company beyond its original PayTo transaction by letting merchants accept global payments and monitor how, when and where those transactions move.

The company is promising AI-driven analytics for users and plugins that let merchants present products in ChatGPT and Claude. The awards account did not attach adoption or revenue figures to either capability, leaving their contribution to future growth unmeasured.

With 110 staff, Hello Clever is eyeing the US as its next major growth market. The company targets $100 million in annual recurring revenue.

Who else reached the Smart50 podium?

The Smart50 Awards ranked care-management startup Kismet second and bridging-loan specialist Bridgit third. Bridgit was described as a fast-growing proptech company. Kismet recorded $44 million in revenue last financial year and a three-year CAGR of 224%. Bridgit posted $84 million in revenue in 2025-26 and three-year growth of 218%.

Bridgit’s $84 million in 2025-26 revenue was almost five times Hello Clever’s $17 million, a concrete measure of the scale gap between the two ranked companies.

Hello Clever now joins earlier Smart50 winners Pay.com.au, InstantScripts and Prospa, among others.

What must Hello Clever prove next?

The next test is execution in the US. Hello Clever must convert its cardless PayTo model, $3.5 billion in processed transactions and international footprint into $100 million in annual recurring revenue while pursuing its next major market. The US market will test whether its 307% three-year growth rate can persist beyond the Australian base.