Wave Accounting

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wave_Accounting

Wave Accounting Inc.

Type

Private

Industry

Small business software

Founded

Canada (2009)

Headquarters
Key people

Number of employees
Website

Toronto, Canada
Kirk Simpson (co-founder and CEO),
James Lochrie (co-founder and CPO)
Les Whiting (VP Payments)
90 (April 2016)
www.waveapps.com

Wave is the brand name for a suite of online small business software products. The legal company name is Wave
Accounting Inc. Wave is headquartered in the Leslieville neighbourhood in Toronto, Canada. The company
manages more than $50 billion in income and expense transactions for its customers, including $5 billion in annual
invoicing.[1]
The company's first product was a free online accounting software designed for businesses with 1-9 employees.
In 2010, Wave Accounting launched the first free double-entry accounting platform in the cloud, which included
unlimited bank data downloads. [2]
Wave Accounting was recently rated one of the top 5 financial planning and personal finance software apps. [3]

Contents
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Features and integrations[edit]

The company's core product, Accounting by Wave, is a double entry accounting tool. Services include direct bank
data imports, invoicing and expense tracking. 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.[4] 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[5] in December 2012 include:
a credit card processing tool, Payments by Wave, built initially on an integration with Stripe credit card
processing
a receipt scanning tool, Receipts by Wave [6]
Wave also produces free mobile applications that integrate with the online functionality:
Invoice by Wave for iPhone [7]
Payments by Wave for iPhone [8]
Receipts by Wave for iPhone
Receipts by Wave for Android [9]
Payroll by Wave for iPhone

Pricing and revenue[edit]

Waves core accounting and invoicing tools are free, as opposed to freemium in that the tools can be used without
tiers or limits. The free webapp functionality contains advertisements geared to small businesses.
Wave also generates revenue from its payroll software, and from its payments (credit card processing) partnership
with Stripe.
Wave does not currently disclose its revenue or financial statements publicly.

Major competitors[edit]
The biggest accounting competitor in the USA is QuickBooks, which holds up to 90% of the market of small
businesses that already use an accounting application.
There are several SaaS accounting apps in the market, including Freshbooks, FreeAgent, Saasu, Outright, Xero,
KashFlow, ZipBooks, Aplos Software for nonprofits, and Sage Group. In addition, several payroll services compete
with Wave such as SurePayroll and ZenPayroll.

History[edit]
CEO Kirk Simpson and CPO James Lochrie launched Wave Accounting Inc. in July 2009. Wave Accounting
launched to the public on November 16, 2010.[10] In June 2011 Series A funding led by OMERS Ventures [11] and
Inkef Capital[12] was closed. In September 2011, FedDev Ontario invested one million dollars in funding. [13] In

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October 2011, a $5-million investment led by U.S. venture capital firm Charles River Ventures was announced.[14] In
May 2012, Wave Accounting closed its series B financing round led by The Social+Capital Partnership, with followon participation from Charles River Ventures and OMERS Ventures.[15]
Wave Accounting acquired a company called Small Payroll in November 2011, [16] which was later launched as a
payroll product called Wave Payroll. In February 2012, Wave Accounting officially launched Wave Payroll to the
public in Canada,[17] followed by the American release in November of the same year.
In August, 2012, the company announced the acquisition of Vuru.co, [18] 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. [19]

References[edit]
1. Jump up ^ "Wave's New App Makes Mobile Invoicing and Accepting Credit Card Payments Faster and
Easier Than Ever". waveapps.com. Wave Accounting Inc . Retrieved 19 June 2014.
2. Jump up ^ "Wave History". /www.waveapps.com. Wave.
3. Jump up ^ "Detailed Wave Accounting Review". /www.advisoryhq.com. AdvisoryHQ.
4. Jump up ^ Canada (2011-11-02). "Wave Accounting acquires Small Payroll and relaunches as Wave
Payroll". Techvibes.com. Retrieved 2012-10-31.
5. Jump up ^ "With 500K Users, Wave Rebrands To Tell The World It Isn't Just About Free Accounting
Anymore". TechCrunch. December 17, 2012. Retrieved April 23, 2013.
6. Jump up ^ Etherington, Darrell. "Wave Debuts Free Receipt Scanning And Management Tool To Add To Its
Free Accounting Platform". Retrieved 10 April 2013.
7. Jump up ^ Lazanis, Ryan. "Wave Accounting Releases New Mobile App for Invoicing" . Techvibes.com.
Retrieved 19 June 2014.
8. Jump up ^ "iTunes App Store". iTunes App Store. Apple . Retrieved 19 June 2014.
9. Jump up ^ "Google Play". play.Google.com. Google.
10. Jump up ^ Canada (2010-11-20). "Wave Accounting launches free service for small businesses" .
Techvibes.com. Retrieved 2012-10-31.
11. Jump up ^ "Home". OMERS Ventures. Retrieved 2012-10-31.
12. Jump up ^ "INKEF Capital Invests in Wave Accounting | Venture Capital, Private Equity, M&A, IPO News" .
News.techfinance.ca. 2011-06-09. Retrieved 2012-10-31.
13. Jump up ^ "Toronto startups get $1M in federal funding | Growth Strategies | Resource Centre |
Entrepreneur | Financial Post". Business.financialpost.com. Retrieved 2012-10-31.
14. Jump up ^ "Toronto startup raises $5M in latest 'Wave' of funding | FP Tech Desk | Financial Post" .
Business.financialpost.com. 2011-10-14. Retrieved 2012-10-31.
15. Jump up ^ Wednesday, May 16, 2012 (2012-05-16). "Wave Accounting Raises $12M from Social+Capital
Partnership, Charles River Ventures & OMERS Ventures". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2012-10-31.
16. Jump up ^ Canada (2011-11-02). "Wave Accounting acquires Small Payroll and relaunches as Wave
Payroll". Techvibes.com. Retrieved 2012-10-31.
17. Jump up ^ Canada (2012-02-01). "Wave Accounting launches Wave Payroll in Canada" . Techvibes.com.
Retrieved 2012-10-31.

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18. Jump up ^ "Vuru.co is now part of the Wave family - Wave Accounting - Free Small Business Accounting
Software". Wave Accounting. 2012-08-21 . Retrieved 2012-10-31.
19. Jump up ^ "With 500K Users, Wave Rebrands To Tell The World It Isn't Just About Free Accounting
Anymore". TechCrunch. December 17, 2012. Retrieved April 23, 2013.

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