How Wave rose to become Francophone Africa’s first unicorn

In 2016, two graduates of Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, conceived a mobile phone-based money transfer and payments service App known as Wave, launching in Senegal two years later. It picked up steam and expanded to Cote D’Ivoire in 2021.

Within four years of operation, Wave Mobile Money has disrupted the industry in both countries through a combination of innovative technology and extremely low transaction fees, rising to become Francophone Africa’s first unicorn at a valuation of $1.7 billion and with half of the mobile money accounts in Senegal.

The vision of co-founders, Drew Durbin and Lincoln Quirk, is to “bring radically inclusive and affordable financial products and services to west Africa, where there is still a big gap in financial inclusion,” Rashmi Pillai, Head of Public Policy at Wave, tells Quartz.

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