The encyclopedia · Finance & Accounting · Strategic decision · 2018–2021
Wave made mobile money free to deposit and 1% to send, and won Senegal
A Sendwave spinoff built its own agent stack and undercut telco mobile money by 70%, becoming Senegal's largest player and Francophone Africa's first unicorn.
Wave Mobile Money
the move
Wave was piloted in Senegal in 2018 inside the Sendwave remittance business founded by Drew Durbin and Lincoln Quirk, then spun out as an independent mobile-money company. It entered a market where telecom operators like Orange and Tigo led mobile money with comparatively high fees.
Wave's bet was radical affordability: users deposit and withdraw for free and pay a flat 1% to send money, which Durbin said made it 70% cheaper than telco-led mobile money. To afford that, Wave built its own agent network, consumer and agent apps, QR cards for customers without smartphones, and collection and disbursement rails.
The pricing worked. By September 2021 Wave was the largest mobile-money player in Senegal, with over half the country's adults as active users — roughly 4-5 million people — and it raised a $200 million Series A at a $1.7 billion valuation, the largest Series A ever raised in Africa, led by Sequoia Heritage with Founders Fund, Stripe and Ribbit.
why it works
- Free deposits and withdrawals removed the biggest friction on cash-in and cash-out.
- A flat 1% fee was transparent and dramatically cheaper than the incumbents.
- Instant refunds built trust where failed transfers were common.
- Owning agents, apps and QR cards kept cost and quality in Wave's hands.
what transfers
When the incumbent's cost structure keeps fees high, vertically integrating the whole stack lets a challenger price at 1% and win on volume.
what came after
Wave expanded to Côte d'Ivoire in April 2021 and planned entries into Uganda, Mali and other markets, while its success pressured Orange, which restricted Wave's access to its airtime. The company kept its zero-fee deposit model and flat 1% send fee as it grew across West Africa.
references
- About Wave — Mission to make Africa the first cashless continent
- Sequoia Heritage, Stripe and others invest $200M in African fintech Wave at $1.7B valuation
spotted an error? The archive wants to know.