Wave, a Toronto, Canada-based free small business financial solution, secured $10m in Series C funding.
Backers included CRV, The Social+Capital Partnership and OMERS Ventures.
The company, which has raised $35m, intends to use the funds for ongoing innovation and development of small business financial tools.
Led by Kirk Simpson, CEO and co-founder, Wave provides small businesses with a free cloud-based software which includes accounting, invoicing, payments, payroll, receipt scanning and personal finance.
FinSMEs
12/05/2015
Press Release
Toronto, May 12, 2015 — Wave (waveapps.com) has closed a $10 million Series C investment with participation from CRV, The Social+Capital Partnership, OMERS Ventures, and a strategic investor in the global fintech software space. This brings total investment in Wave to $35 million, with the new funds earmarked for ongoing innovation and development of small business financial tools.
Wave is the fastest-growing small business financial solution on the market today, driving 10,000+ organic small business signups every week. The company has set the standard for unified, comprehensive back-office services, spanning some of today’s hottest tech segments: payments, small business software, and B2B, plus near-future opportunities in lending.
Today, 95% of businesses in North America have fewer than 10 employees. The cornerstone of Wave’s products is its 100% free, unlimited accounting software made for that massive market segment. Since its launch in 2010, Wave’s product offerings have expanded to include invoicing, payroll and a native payment processing platform.
“We are huge believers in Wave’s vision of addressing the full breadth of small business finance needs,” says Devdutt Yellurkar, Partner at CRV. “Over the past 3 years, Wave has attracted over 1,000,000 small businesses to its seamlessly integrated accounting, invoicing and payroll system and continues to grow its customer base very fast.”
In the last 12 months, Wave has launched a native payment platform, and upgraded its payroll services to include complete, effortless tax services (already available in California and Florida, and rolling out to several additional states in the coming months). That’s on top of Wave’s existing accounting, invoicing, receipt scanning, expense management, and personal finance products. Taken together, Wave gives entrepreneurs, freelancers and small business owners unprecedented ease of use, insights, and one-stop management of business finances. Wave’s simple UX and customer-friendly language have also been widely copied in the industry over the last 5 years.
“Wave has quietly built the most comprehensive finance software in the cloud for microbusinesses,” says Mamoon Hamid, General Partner at Social+Capital. “We agree with Wave, that small owner-operated businesses are different from the ‘SMBs’ and ‘SMEs’ targeted by traditional players, and we believe Wave is uniquely positioned to capitalize on this massively underserved market.”
“With the support of CRV, Social+Capital and OMERS Ventures, we can complete our vision of building a truly disruptive suite of tools for owners of small- and micro-businesses,” says Kirk Simpson, CEO and co-founder of Wave. “Our strategy goes beyond solving a singular need: We’re taking the fear and pain out of all aspects of financial management, and helping our customers grow healthy, profitable businesses.”
Quick Stats:
95% of businesses in North America have 0-9 employees. That’s 30 million businesses.
Wave is signing up 10,000+ businesses per week, all through organic channels.
Wave’s integrated products include accounting, invoicing, payments, payroll, receipt scanning and personal finance.
Wave’s customers are currently invoicing more than $6 billion per year.
Wave signs up nearly 5,000 merchant accounts (payment processing) each month, many of which are small business owners for whom credit card processing was previously too cumbersome or expensive.
Wave’s payroll customers are currently running nearly $250 million in payroll per year.
Wave is tracking $60 billion in income and expenses for its customers.
Financial Technology Partners (FT Partners) served as exclusive financial and strategic advisor to Wave and its Board of Directors in this transaction.
About Wave:
Founded in November 2010, Wave is the cloud-based provider of free software for the money side of small businesses. The company has secured venture funding and board leadership from the Social+Capital Partnership, CRV, and OMERS Ventures. Wave is signing up tens of thousands of small business customers each month, and currently tracks $60 billion in small business income and spending.
For more information, visit www.waveapps.com.