Canadian Fintech Platform Wave Raises $24 Million

Toronto, Ontario-based fintech firm Wave, which provides financial management software to small businesses, received $32 million CAD ($23.8 million) from investors including the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC), Exhibition Capital and National Australia Bank (NAB). Other investors in the Series D round, including Portag3 and PowerCorp, joined existing investors Social Capital, BDC Capital, CRV, Omers Ventures, Harbourvest and OurCrowd.

The cloud-based financial management company provides a one-stop shop for merchants to manage their accounting, invoicing, payments, payroll and receipts, along with offering an in-application lending service. Customers can access all of Wave’s solutions for free, with the exception of payroll and credit card processing, which have a pay-as-you-go fee. As a result of a recent partnership with New York City-based Ondeck Capital, the platform now allows customers to apply to loans of up to $500,000 to fund a range of operational expenses.

Over 2.5 million end users from more than 200 countries currently utilize WaveApps to run their businesses at no cost, or on an affordable basis. Wave claims it is adding 60,000 new businesses every month to its platform.

The seven-year-old company says it will use the new capital to accelerate its product development, particularly in the artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning spaces. By integrating new technology, Wave hopes to automate and streamline many of its services.

Wave’s funding round comes as Ontario ups its efforts to make the region a global fintech hub. Mark Dobbins, head of strategy and corporate development of RBC says the investment is part of the bank’s commitment “to support the scale up of emerging fintech companies in our economy, recognizing the critical role they play in Canada’s Innovation agenda.”