Wave
Also a provider — view Wave’s profile →“Can a smartphone-native, low-fee mobile money operator displace telco-led incumbents to become the financial infrastructure for Francophone Africa?”
Founded2018
HQDakar, Senegal / San Francisco, USA
FoundersDrew Durbin, Lincoln Quirk
Total raised$200M+ (Series A)
Latest roundSeries A, 2021
Valuation$1.7B (2021)
IndustryFintech / Consumer banking
The story
Wave was founded in 2018 by Sendwave founders Drew Durbin and Lincoln Quirk to attack the high-fee mobile money market in Francophone Africa, which had been dominated by telco-led providers (Orange Money, MTN MoMo). Its core thesis: build a smartphone-app-first mobile money network with sub-1% transfer fees and free deposits/withdrawals, displacing telecom incumbents. By 2021 it became Francophone Africa's first unicorn. Note: this Wave is distinct from Wave Financial (waveapps.com), the Toronto-based H&R Block-owned SMB accounting/payments software company — the two are unrelated.
Last 12 months
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Product timeline
0
Expanded across Senegal, Ivory Coast, Mali, Burkina Faso, Uganda, Gambia, Sierra Leone, Cameroon, Guinea, Niger· banking
0
Launched Wave Business APIs (Checkout, Payout, Balance) for merchants· banking
2018
Wave founded by Drew Durbin and Lincoln Quirk, building on Sendwave remittance experience to launch mobile money in Senegal· pivot
2021
$200M Series A at $1.7B valuation — first unicorn in Francophone Africa· funding
Regulated entities
3
regulatory licences held by Wave
Licence types, jurisdictions and registered entities are in the Embedded Finance Index report.
The stack
2 layers disclosed in Wave’s embedded-finance stack
Payments / PSP
Wave (self-operated mobile money)Wave Checkout API (self-operated)
Banking / BaaS
in the full report
Accounting gap: minor
1 more provider across 1 layer, with confidence-scored evidence and source URLs, are in the Embedded Finance Index report.