Independent mobile money provider Wave bagged $200m in a landmark Series A round led by Sequoia Heritage, Founders Fund, Stripe and Ribbit, valuing it at $1.7bn.
Unlike PayPal, the Wave App doesn’t require customers to have a bank account and instead runs a network of small local businesses that use their on-hand cash to service Wave users.
Wave CEO and founder Drew Durbin said, “From day one, we’ve been relentlessly focused on building mobile money that’s easy-to-use and radically affordable. We’ve built something people love in Senegal, but that’s only the beginning — our mission is to bring a modern financial network to everyone in Africa.”
Despite being founded in just 2018, Wave is already the largest mobile money player in Senegal and is showing strong growth in Côte d’Ivoire.
Africa’s newest unicorn sets itself apart from other telecom-led providers in two key ways. First, all deposits and withdrawals at Wave agents are free. Wave users pay only 1% to send money – about 70% less than telecom-led mobile money. Furthermore, for users without a smartphone, Wave provides a free QR-card that allows anyone to transact with an agent.
Speaking with TechCrunch, Durbin argued that this approach is 70% cheaper than telecom-led mobile money, and, solves the transfer problem refunds posed by incumbents which are now made instantly.
Durbin explained that Wave’s technology also differs from telecom-led mobile money. He said, “By building its own infrastructure full-stack — agent network, agent and consumer applications, QR cards, business collections, and disbursements — Wave has been able to fuel its growth to several million monthly active users and billions of dollars in annual volume.”
The company aims to expand into new African markets such as Uganda and Mali on the back of the fundraise, deepen its existing presence, and enhance digital offerings and operations.
Former Y-Combinator CEO and Partech Africa investor Sam Altman added, “Wave is solving the root problem with financial services in Africa by making it easy and affordable for anyone to save and send money. They’ve built a product that millions of users love and the engagement is on par with the top consumer tech companies in the world.”
Wave joins OPay and Flutterwave as the newly minted unicorns in Africa this year. The largest venture rounds for any venture in Africa remain OPay’s recent $400m fundraise and Jumia’s equivalent in 2016. Both were Series C rounds. The next biggest rounds include Interswitch’s $200m investment from Visa and Flutterwave’s $170m Series C.
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