Wave Mobile Money

We founded Wave Mobile Money in 2017 to build financial services in Africa. We launched our mobile application in Senegal in November 2017, then expanded to Cote D’Ivoire in 2019.

Our services include cash deposit and withdrawal, peer-to-peer payments, business payments, bill payments, and airtime purchases. Deposits, withdrawals, and bill payments are free; sending money costs 1%. We want to provide affordable financial services to people in sub-Saharan Africa who don’t have traditional bank accounts. We operate in Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Cote d’Ivoire, Gambia, Mali, Niger, Senegal, and Uganda.

We use technologies like a Python monolith, GraphQL API, Postgres, CockroachDB, and Snowflake for data analytics. We also use machine learning for our customer support agents. We develop both Android and iOS applications.

Our mission is to help Africa become the first cashless continent by building an affordable, accessible financial network. It’s free of account fees, instantly available, and widely accepted.

Our core values include:

• Being egolessly mission-driven
• Putting user needs first
• Taking time offline for personal life
• Honesty: admitting mistakes and giving direct feedback
• Maximizing learning—individually and as a company—to achieve our mission efficiently

Wave Mobile Money has 1,000 to 5,000 employees. The leadership team includes Drew Durbin (Co-founder and CEO), Coura Sene (Regional Director), Kizito Okute (Head of Agent Operations), Ruth Lee (Chief Technology Officer), Chris Williamson (Head of Payments), Malick Gueye (General Manager Senegal), Sid Sridhar (Head of Business), Emily Austin (Head of People), Katier Bamba (General Manager Côte d’Ivoire), and Kevin Odiorne (Head of Finance).

When hiring, Wave looks for cultural fit and shared values as much as capability. Compensation follows a transparent formula based on skill and experience. The work environment values impact over optics, giving employees flexibility in how they work. Teams are often cross-functional and work independently, managing solutions from planning through production monitoring. Wave encourages continuous learning and fast iteration.

We offer subsidized health insurance for employees and their dependents. We provide retirement contributions, which vary by country. Employees get six months of fully paid parental leave and subsidized fertility assistance.

Our vacation policy is flexible; employees typically take 21-30 days off, not including holidays. Some roles may offer 30-40 days per year.

Other benefits include a $10,000 annual charitable donation match and a $1,200 yearly stipend for coworking meetups. Salaries can be up to $222,700 (USD), $152,100 (USD), or $178,200 (USD), along with an equity package. Many remote roles include annual travel to our operating markets, with Wave covering the costs.