#28: Sendwave - How the mobile remittances service scaled from Y Combinator to a $500M WorldRemit exit
Afrobility: Africa Tech and BusinessPlay episode
Show notes
Overview: Today, we're going to talk about Sendwave - the mobile remittances service that was acquired by WorldRemit in 2020-Aug. We start with the context of African remittances, discuss Sendwave's early history, growth, acquisition by WorldRemit & end with our overall outlook. This episode was recorded on May 2nd, 2021
Companies discussed: Sendwave (Remittances), Wave (Mobile money / Consumer FinTech), WorldRemit (Zepz), Chipper Cash, Transferwise, Remitly, Western Union, MoneyGram & Safaricom
Business concepts discussed: African remittances, personal finance OS, neobanks, Market expansion entry & Consumer Fintech (WealthTech) entry strategy
Conversation highlights:
(01:15) - What is Sendwave and why we’re talking about it (05:10) - Global Remittances context, size and trends (11:30) - Remittances in Sub-Saharan Africa (21:00) - Sendwave founding and early history (25:15) - Product strategy - UX, fees, disbursement speed, integrations (31:12) - Fundraising - Seed, series A and expansion (43:20) - WorldRemit's $500M acquisition (49:40) - Bankole’s overall thoughts and outlook (58:30) - Olumide’s overall thoughts and outlook (1:09:38) - Recommendations and small wins
Olumide’s recommendations, small wins & open questions:
Recommendation: Software is eating the rest of the world (By Derin Adebayo): Fabulous. Recommendation: The Simple Path to Wealth (JL Collins). Amazing. Small win: Flew to ATL to catch-up with a friend visiting. Awesome.
Bankole’s recommendations, small wins & open questions:
Recommendation: Promising Young Woman Small win: Started a garden to grow vegetables Other content: Symplifi & Wave Mobile Money Engineering blog
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