Wave Mobile Money

Wave Mobile Money, founded in 2017, provides mobile money services across Africa, with operations in nine countries. Its core offering is a mobile money account with no fees, instant deposits and withdrawals, and peer-to-peer payments, designed to function reliably in settings where traditional banking infrastructure is thin or absent. In Senegal, where the service launched, Wave reports over 7 million users and describes itself as the country's largest financial institution.

For engineers, the company's work sits at the intersection of payments technology, mobile app development and fintech infrastructure, with an explicit focus on reliability in difficult operating environments - places, as the company puts it, where electricity and water are not guaranteed. The technical domains in play include mobile money, digital remittances and peer-to-peer payments at national scale.

The founders previously built Sendwave, a digital remittance service that became the largest digital remitter to Africa, before spinning out Wave. The company raised a Series A at a $1.7 billion valuation, described as the largest-ever Series A for an African fintech. Wave's stated mission is financial inclusion for underbanked populations, pursued through radically simple, low-cost products - no account fees and instant availability among them.