Website www.waveapps.com Headquarters Toronto, Canada Type of business Privately held company | Founded 2009 Number of employees 135 (March 2017) | |
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Industry Small business software Key people Kirk Simpson (co-founder and CEO), James Lochrie (co-founder); Les Whiting (SVP Financial Services) Profiles | ||
Wave accounting
Wave Accounting Inc. is a company that provides a suite of financial services and online software for small businesses. Wave is headquartered in the Leslieville neighbourhood in Toronto, Canada. The company manages more than $175 billion in income and expense transactions for its customers, including $21 billion in annual invoicing.
Contents
- Wave accounting
- Features and integrations
- Pricing and business model
- Major competitors
- History
- References
The company's first product was a free online accounting software designed for businesses with 1-9 employees, followed by invoicing, personal finance and receipt scanning software. In 2012, Wave began branching into financial services, initially with Payments by Wave (credit card processing) and Payroll by Wave, followed by Lending by Wave in February 2017.
In 2010, Wave launched the first free double-entry accounting platform in the cloud, which included unlimited bank data downloads.
Features and integrations
The company's initial product, Accounting by Wave, is a double entry accounting tool. Services include direct bank data imports, invoicing and expense tracking, customizable chart of accounts, and journal transactions. Accounting by Wave integrates with expense tracking software Shoeboxed, and e-commerce website Etsy.
The next product launched was Payroll by Wave, which was launched in 2012 after the acquisition of SmallPayroll.ca. Payroll by Wave is only available in U.S.A. and Canada.
Invoicing by Wave is an offshoot of the company's earlier accounting tools.
Additional products launched on or shortly after the company's rebrand in December 2012 include:
Wave also produces free mobile applications that integrate with the online functionality:
• Invoice by Wave for Android
Pricing and business model
Wave provides its software for free to more than 2 million customers around the world.
Revenue from the company comes from the paid financial services the company offers:
Wave previously included advertising on its pages as a source of revenue. Advertising was removed in January 2017.
Wave’s software is free, as opposed to freemium in that the tools can be used without tiers or limits.
Wave does not currently disclose its revenue or financial statements publicly. However, media reports in 2016 indicated annual revenues of $20 million at that time.
Major competitors
Wave's traditional competitors were SaaS providers such as QuickBooks, Freshbooks, FreeAgent, Saasu, Outright, Xero, KashFlow, ZipBooks, Aplos Software for nonprofits, and Sage Group; and payroll services such as SurePayroll and ZenPayroll.
More recently, Wave's expansion into financial services puts it in competition with Merchant services providers and small business banks.
History
CEO Kirk Simpson and CPO James Lochrie launched Wave Accounting Inc. in July 2009. Wave Accounting launched to the public on November 16, 2010. In June 2011 Series A funding led by OMERS Ventures was closed. In September 2011, FedDev Ontario invested one million dollars in funding. In October 2011, a $5-million investment led by U.S. venture capital firm Charles River Ventures was announced. In May 2012, Wave Accounting closed its series B financing round led by The Social+Capital Partnership, with follow-on participation from Charles River Ventures and OMERS Ventures.
Wave acquired a company called Small Payroll in November 2011, which was later launched as a payroll product called Wave Payroll. In February 2012, Wave officially launched Wave Payroll to the public in Canada, followed by the American release in November of the same year.
In August, 2012, the company announced the acquisition of Vuru.co, an online stock-tracking service. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
In December 2012 the company rebranded itself as Wave to emphasize its broadened spectrum of services.