Drew Durbin
Founder/CEOCEO at Wave
Founder profile As recorded 2026-09-15
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Fintech payments
Wave
Overview
Building extremely affordable financial infrastructure for Africa.
Company description As recorded 2026-11-08
Founders & team
Previously Wave, Wave Mobile Money
Company history As recorded 2026-11-08
1600team members reported
Source-reported As recorded 2026-09-15
Founded 2018 · Source
Origins
Lincoln and I were hallmates freshman year at Brown University. We originally founded Sendwave (YC12) to solve the problem of crazy high fees for sending international money transfers to Africa. I had experienced this problem first hand working on an NGO in Tanzania.As we scaled Sendwave into the largest digital remitter to Africa, we realized there was an even bigger problem moving money domestically within African countries. So, we sold Sendwave and spun out our current business, Wave, to build extremely affordable mobile money for countries in Africa, starting with Senegal.
Founder account As recorded 2026-09-15
News & product activity
Cohort membership
Winter 2012Winter 2012
Original evidence ↗Sources & observations
Profile depthverified profile
Website observationwebsite reachable
Last website check2026-11-11
Location · source statedDakar, Dakar Region, Senegal; Remote
Pricing evidenceNo pricing page confirmed
Maturity: Not assessed · 3 of 6 areas documented
Source-based assessment · automated evidence rules
The retained text does not establish product availability or customer use.
Maturity is an evidence-based assessment, not a success rating. It may understate the current stage where evidence is limited. Coverage records documented areas, not a complete or independently audited company history.
- Product overviewSource description Checked 2026-11-08
- Product visualsNot documented
- Founders & originsTeam information
- Business model & pricingNot documented
- Funding & ownershipNot documented
- Dated milestonesDated source activity: 2012 Q1 (quarter only)
independent websitesource corroborationreachable websitedescriptive evidenceclassified market and modelsourced peoplesourced founding year
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