The FinTech Report
The FinTech Report Podcast is a deep dive into the people, platforms and businesses in the fintech sector. Each episode, your host, Glen Frost, will be talking with a leading expert in the fintech field – discussing a broad range of topics from Ai, Core Banking, Payments, Wealth, Lending to FinTech-Bank Partnerships.
Thank you to Vanta for sponsoring this show in 2025 - Vanta is revolutionizing trust management with their proven platform that helps everyone from startup founders to experienced security professionals establish security credentials faster. Their platform helps you achieve critical frameworks like SOC 2 and ISO 27001 while proactively managing vendor risk. For any business, establishing trust isn't optional—it's essential.
The FinTech Report
The FinTech Report: Episode 60: Caroline Tran, Co-Founder, hello clever
Caroline Tran, Co-Founder, hello clever
Key messages:
Payments as an engine for growth (for merchants) because they can add loyalty and instant cash back - this is the best use case for RTP (using NPP in Australia)
Caroline's fundraising journey was very hard, with lots of calls. But persistence paid off and she has received investment from US VCs - and is herself now part of the San Francisco Angel Network
Caroline’s background is accountancy and sales; she’s worked for well-known brands such as James Hardie, WPP, and IPG Media – in 2021, Caroline co-founded Hello Clever, which she describes as ‘The World’s Leading AI-powered payment solution that seamlessly integrates Loyalty, RTP (real time payments) and Intelligent Insights’.
Caroline is also an investor in other startups, including Open Ai.
In this episode we discuss:
1. What led you to create hello clever?
2. What problem are you solving?
3. How does the platform work? How is Ai used?
4. How should fintechs/banks think about ‘Ai in banking’?
5. Describe a user journey
6. Who are your customers?
7. What’s your business model? Where do you make money
8. High growth? How?
9. Team size? What funding have you received?
10. Future plans? New products, new markets?
