SENEGAL – Wave, the U.S. and Senegal-based mobile money provider, has announced the raise of a US$200 million Series A financing. This landmark investment shot the valuation of the independent mobile money provider to US$1.7 billion.
The round which is the largest ever Series A round in Africa was led by Sequoia Heritage, a subsidiary of Sequoia; Founders Fund; US payment giant, Stripe; and Ribbit Capital. Other investors include existing investors Partech Africa and Sam Altman, the former CEO of Y Combinator and current CEO of OpenAI.
The Wave app which is similar to PayPal does not require customers to have a bank account. The platform instead runs on a network of ‘agents’ who use their cash on-hand to cater for Wave users.
“From day one, we’ve been relentlessly focused on building mobile money that’s easy-to-use and radically affordable.” Drew Durbin, CEO and founder said on the investment.
“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.
“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,” Durbin 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.”
Africa’s newest unicorn sets itself apart from other telecom-led providers in two keyways. 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.
“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,” Former Y-Combinator CEO and Partech Africa investor Sam Altman said.
Second, users without a smartphone, Wave provides a free QR-card that allows anyone to transact with an agent.
“Since 2018 we’ve supported Wave because we were convinced mobile money is still an unsolved problem in Africa,” said Tidjane Deme, Partech general partner and Africa Fund co-lead.
“Wave has great product design, stellar execution and a strong financial trajectory. We are proud to see it become the first unicorn from Senegal. This funding is a game changer in helping Wave bring a better mobile money service across Africa.”
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.
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