Wave
YC W12YC Top CompanyDakar, SN · Founded 2018 · 1,600 employees · 4 known investors
Wave builds a modern financial network for Africa offering bank account alternatives, money transfer, and lending services with no fees. The platform targets the over half of the African population without bank access, enabling them to save, transfer, and borrow money.
Also known as Wave Mobile Money
Founders & leadership· Y Combinator alumni (W12)
Wave was founded in 2018 by Drew Durbin.
DD
Investors · 4
The YC application· Winter 2012 batch
Alumni Q&A
- How did your company get started? (i.e., How did the founders meet? How did you come up with the idea? How did you decide to be a founder?)
- The two founders met as freshman hallmates at Brown University. They first started Sendwave (YC12) to address high fees on international remittances to Africa, a problem one founder encountered while working with an NGO in Tanzania. After growing Sendwave into the largest digital remitter to Africa, they identified a larger problem in moving money domestically within African countries, sold Sendwave, and spun out Wave to offer low-cost mobile money, beginning in Senegal.
- How did you decide to apply to Y Combinator? What was your experience applying, going through the batch, and fundraising at demo day?
- One founder had followed YC since college, so applying was straightforward once they began working together. They cite the relationships built with advisors during the batch, many maintained over ten years later, as the most valuable part of the experience.
Summarized from the founders' answers on their Y Combinator profile.
Images
Competitors · 5
by search overlap
Sendwave95 shared keywordsSendwave provides international money transfer services designed to simplify remittances through digital channels with low fees and fast transfers, serving customers who want to send money across borders without visiting physical locations.
Wise79 shared keywordsWise is a financial platform offering international money transfers, multi-currency accounts, and debit cards with low fees and competitive exchange rates, serving millions of users globally.
Flutterwave40 shared keywordsFlutterwave provides payment processing infrastructure and tools that enable businesses and financial institutions across Africa to send and receive payments securely and efficiently. The company operates in over 33 African countries and has facilitated billions of dollars in transaction volume since its 2016 founding.
Remitly35 shared keywordsRemitly is an international money transfer service that enables customers to send money across borders to multiple countries.
Jetlore32 shared keywordsJetlore was a Palo Alto AI startup that turned unstructured retail product data into structured attributes so merchants could personalise what each shopper saw. Founded by Stanford researchers, it raised from Sierra Ventures, Alsop Louie Partners, Fenox Venture Capital, BRM Capital and Mercury Fund, and PayPal acquired it in 2018.
Companies competing with Wave for the same Google search keywords, organic and paid, via search-intersection analysis.
In the news
Eco Wave Power Raises Capital at a Premium, but the Road from Pilot Projects to the Energy Industry Remains Long - Israel Electronics Newstechtime.news · Jul 2026Frequently asked questions
- What does Wave do?
- Wave builds a modern financial network for Africa offering bank account alternatives, money transfer, and lending services with no fees. The platform targets the over half of the African population without bank access, enabling them to save, transfer, and borrow money.
- Who founded Wave?
- Wave was founded by Drew Durbin in 2018.
- Who are Wave's investors?
- Wave's investors include Glynn Capital Management, LoftyInc Capital, South Quad, Y Combinator.
- Where is Wave headquartered?
- Wave is headquartered in Dakar, SN.