The Ledger of Grit: Drew Durbin & Lincoln Quirk - How Two College Hallmates Built Francophone Africa's First Unicorn

Chapter 1: The Hallmate Connection

Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, 2004

Drew Durbin and Lincoln Quirk met as hallmates during their freshman year at Brown University. Like thousands of college friendships, it could have been temporary - shared dining hall meals, late-night study sessions, then graduation and separate paths.

Instead, they became friends over something deeper: "a shared love of building simple products that make a social impact," as their company biography would later describe it.

Drew was the idealistic one. In ninth grade ethics class at The Potomac School, his teacher had asked students to write down a life goal. While classmates wrote about careers and wealth, Drew wrote something that made his teacher take notice: "Create a product that helps improve the lives of a million people."

"When I realized that such a thing was really possible, I was immediately drawn to the idea," Drew would later reflect.

Lincoln was the technical complement - equally passionate about social impact but with the engineering skills to make ambitious ideas reality. Lincoln had been following Y Combinator since its early days, already thinking about startup culture while most students focused on traditional career paths.

By graduation in 2008, both had been shaped by Brown's culture of intellectual curiosity and social responsibility. But Drew had a specific plan that would take him far from Providence, Rhode Island.

Chapter 2: The Tanzania Education

Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, 2008

Immediately after college, Drew made a decision that puzzled his family and friends: he moved to Tanzania to work with an NGO. Having become interested in startups and been involved with an Engineers Without Borders project during his student days, Drew decided he wanted to explore social enterprises firsthand.

"I figured the best way to do that was just to jump in and try," Drew explained years later.

His first two ventures involved building handcarts and solar cookers made from recycled materials. While neither came close to the scale Drew hoped for, he learned valuable lessons about working in developing markets, understanding local needs, and the complexities of building solutions for underserved populations.

"I loved entrepreneurship – the traveling, working on the ground, making an impact. In global development you get to work directly with the people you're trying to uplift," Drew reflected.

But Tanzania taught Drew something else: the broken economics of money movement.

Every time Drew needed to send money to support his NGO's operations, he faced the same painful reality. Walking into Western Union or MoneyGram, he would hand over funds and watch 10% disappear in fees. For an NGO operating on donated money, this wasn't just expensive - it was morally problematic.

"In 2014, I got fed up with the hassles, high fees and low guarantees that came with sending money to my NGO in Tanzania," Drew would later write on HackerNoon. The 10% fees meant that for every $1,000 sent, $100 vanished into the pockets of money transfer companies.

Drew started asking questions: Why were these fees so high? Was this a technology problem or a competition problem? Could digital solutions make money transfers as easy and affordable as sending a text message?

The more he investigated, the more he realized this wasn't just his problem - it was affecting millions of African immigrants worldwide who were sending money home to support families.

Chapter 3: The Reunion and First Venture

2012-2014

When Drew returned from Tanzania, he reconnected with Lincoln Quirk. Drew's field experience combined with Lincoln's technical skills created the perfect partnership for tackling the remittance problem.

Their analysis was straightforward: Traditional money transfer services like Western Union and MoneyGram charged excessive fees because they could. Limited competition, physical infrastructure requirements, and regulatory complexity created barriers that kept fees artificially high.

But mobile money was emerging in Kenya through M-Pesa, proving that digital financial services could work in African markets. The infrastructure was developing - they just needed to build the bridge.

In 2014, Drew and Lincoln founded Sendwave, "a service that enabled instant, no-sending-fee remittances to be sent from mobile phones in the U.S. to phones in Kenya, where mobile money capability was already fairly widespread."

The value proposition was simple: Send money to Africa with no fees, instantly, from your smartphone. For African immigrants who had been paying 10% fees at physical locations, Sendwave was revolutionary.

"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," Drew explained to Y Combinator.

Sendwave's mission, as described on their website, was clear: "make sending money to Africa as easy and affordable as sending a text."

Chapter 4: The Sendwave Success

2014-2020

Sendwave grew rapidly by focusing relentlessly on user experience and cost reduction. While traditional remittance companies required physical visits, forms, and high fees, Sendwave offered instant transfers from smartphones with transparent pricing.

The company expanded from Kenya to five African nations, building the infrastructure to support mobile money transfers across different countries, currencies, and regulatory environments.

Lincoln had been following Y Combinator since college, so when they decided to formalize their partnership, applying to YC was "an easy decision," as Drew later explained.

The Y Combinator experience provided crucial validation and network access, but Drew and Lincoln remained focused on the African market rather than chasing Silicon Valley trends.

By 2020, Sendwave had become "the largest digital remittance company to Africa" according to their company biography. The success attracted attention from larger players in the remittance industry.

In 2020, WorldRemit completed a $500 million cash and stock acquisition of Sendwave. For Drew and Lincoln, this represented validation of their approach - but also an opportunity to tackle an even larger problem.

"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," Drew explained.

Chapter 5: The Bigger Opportunity

2018-2020

While building Sendwave, Drew and Lincoln identified a massive market opportunity: domestic money transfers within African countries. International remittances were a billion-dollar market, but domestic mobile money was potentially ten times larger.

The problem was similar to what they'd solved with international transfers, but more complex. Within African countries, people needed to send money to family members, pay bills, make purchases, and access basic financial services. But existing mobile money providers - typically telecommunications companies - charged high fees and provided poor user experiences.

In Senegal, for example, Orange Money dominated the market, charging fees between 6-10% for sending and receiving money and payment of utility bills. For most people, this was their only option.

Drew and Lincoln saw an opportunity to apply the same principles that made Sendwave successful: better technology, lower fees, superior user experience.

In 2018, while continuing to run Sendwave, they launched Wave in Senegal as a pilot program. Wave was designed as "a mobile money company fully focused on enabling basic money transfer and banking services in Africa."

Wave differed from traditional mobile money in crucial ways:

• Platform: Solely app-based rather than USSD-based

• Fees: 1% flat fee for transfers, zero fees for deposits/withdrawals

• Infrastructure: Full-stack technology rather than telecom add-on

• User Experience: Consumer-first design rather than network-first

For users without smartphones, Wave provided free QR cards to interact with agents, ensuring the service remained accessible across all economic levels.

Chapter 6: Breaking the Monopoly

2018-2021

Wave's launch in Senegal created immediate market disruption. After years of paying 6-10% fees to Orange Money, Senegalese users suddenly had an alternative that charged 1% for transfers and nothing for basic transactions.

"We were paying fees between 6 and 10% for sending and receiving money and for payment of utility bills. We had no choice because that was the only option available. However, when Wave entered the scene everything changed," Bernard Zio, a Côte d'Ivoire-based architect, told Quartz Africa.

Wave's flat fee structure represented a 70% cost reduction compared to telecom-led mobile money. More importantly, Wave offered instant refunds for transaction problems, while incumbent providers often required users to wait days for resolution.

The impact was immediate and measurable. Wave quickly gained traction among Senegalese users who had been underserved by existing options. By building their own full-stack infrastructure - agent network, applications, QR cards, business collections, and disbursements - Wave could control the entire user experience.

Within three years, Wave had achieved remarkable penetration in Senegal. The company gained 6 million active accounts - approximately half of the total market share in a country of 18 million people.

The success forced competitors to respond. Orange Money and other providers quickly adjusted their fees to 1% in Senegal to avoid losing customers to Wave's superior value proposition.

But Wave's ambitions extended beyond Senegal. In 2021, the company expanded to Côte d'Ivoire and began preparing for additional market entries across Francophone West Africa.

Chapter 7: The Strategic Sale

2020-2021

By 2020, Drew and Lincoln faced a strategic decision. Sendwave was successful and profitable, but continuing to run both Sendwave and Wave would divide their focus during Wave's critical growth phase.

To concentrate fully on Wave's expansion, they sold Sendwave to WorldRemit for $500 million in early 2021. The sale provided financial independence and allowed them to focus entirely on their larger mission: making Africa the first cashless continent.

"To focus fully on domestic money transfer in Africa, Drew and Lincoln sold Sendwave to WorldRemit for $500 million in early 2021 and spun out Wave," according to The Potomac School's profile of Drew.

Wave officially spun off from Sendwave in 2020 with the mission to bring digital finance to everyone in Africa. Wave was initially piloted in Senegal from within the Sendwave ecosystem, but the spin-off allowed it to become an independent company focused exclusively on African domestic mobile money.

The $500 million Sendwave exit provided validation that Drew and Lincoln could build valuable companies, but more importantly, it gave them the resources and credibility to pursue Wave's more ambitious vision.

Chapter 8: The Record-Breaking Series A

September 2021

Less than a year after the Sendwave sale, Wave achieved something unprecedented in African startup history: the largest Series A funding round ever recorded for an African startup.

Wave raised $200 million in a Series A funding round that valued the company at $1.7 billion. The round was co-led by Sequoia Heritage, Founders Fund, Stripe, and Ribbit Capital, with participation from Partech Africa and Sam Altman, former CEO of Y Combinator.

The deal made Wave "the first unicorn in Francophone Africa" and demonstrated the potential for African fintech companies to achieve billion-dollar valuations.

"From day one, we've been relentlessly focused on building mobile money that's easy-to-use and radically affordable. We've built something people love in Senegal, but that's only the beginning — our mission is to bring a modern financial network to everyone in Africa," Drew said in announcing the funding.

The $1.7 billion valuation was remarkable for several reasons:

• Speed: Achieved unicorn status just three years after launching Wave

• Geography: First unicorn from Francophone Africa

• Series A Size: At $200 million, larger than Facebook and Google's Series A rounds combined

• Market Validation: Proved that African domestic fintech could attract Silicon Valley capital

Sam Altman's participation was particularly meaningful, given Lincoln's early interest in Y Combinator culture. "Wave is solving the root problem with financial services in Africa by making it easy and affordable for anyone to save and send money. They've built a product that millions of users love and the engagement is on par with the top consumer tech companies in the world," Altman commented.

Chapter 9: The Technology Advantage

What distinguished Wave from competitors wasn't just pricing - it was technological architecture. While telecom companies treated mobile money as an add-on to their core business, Wave built financial services as their primary focus.

Wave's technology differed from telecom-led mobile money in several key ways:

Full-Stack Control: By building their own infrastructure rather than relying on telecom partners, Wave could optimize every aspect of the user experience.

App-First Design: While incumbents focused on USSD technology for basic phones, Wave prioritized smartphone applications with superior user interfaces.

Agent Network Innovation: Wave built a network of local businesses that used their cash on hand to service Wave users, creating more convenient access points than traditional banking.

QR Code Integration: For users without smartphones, Wave provided free QR cards that enabled transactions with agents, maintaining accessibility across all economic segments.

Instant Resolution: Unlike incumbents where transaction problems might take days to resolve, Wave offered instant refunds and customer service.

This technological foundation enabled Wave to process billions of dollars in annual volume while maintaining the low fees that attracted users from incumbent providers.

Chapter 10: Geographic Expansion

The Series A funding enabled Wave to expand beyond Senegal into additional African markets. The company launched in Mali and Uganda, with plans for further expansion across West Africa.

Wave's expansion strategy focused on markets where existing mobile money providers offered poor value propositions similar to what they had found in Senegal:

• High fees (6-10% of transaction value)

• Poor user experience (USSD-based, limited customer service)

• Limited competition (telecom monopolies or duopolies)

Each new market required careful adaptation to local regulations, currencies, and business practices, but Wave's core value proposition - dramatically lower fees and superior user experience - proved transferable across Francophone West Africa.

By 2025, Wave was serving over 20 million monthly active users through a network of more than 150,000 agents and a team of 3,000 employees across eight markets in West Africa.

Chapter 11: The Continued Mission

2022-2025

Wave's success hasn't slowed their ambition. The company continues expanding across West Africa while deepening their services in existing markets.

In June 2025, Wave gained operational approval in Cameroon through a partnership with Commercial Bank Cameroon (CBC), extending their regional footprint into Central Africa.

The company also raised an additional $137 million in debt financing in 2025, led by Rand Merchant Bank with support from British International Investment, Finnfund, and Norfund. This funding will enable continued expansion and service enhancement.

For two consecutive years, 2023 and 2024, Wave has been the only African company listed on Y Combinator's top 50 earning startups list, demonstrating the sustainability of their business model.

Drew remains focused on the original mission: "Our mission is to bring a modern financial network to everyone in Africa." With over $300 million in total funding raised, Wave is positioned to continue expanding across underserved African markets.

Chapter 12: The Cultural Builder Advantage

Drew Durbin and Lincoln Quirk's success with Wave demonstrates several principles of cultural building that extend beyond their specific market:

Ground-Truth Experience: Drew's years working in Tanzania provided firsthand understanding of the problems they were solving. This wasn't theoretical knowledge - it was lived experience with the pain points of existing systems.

Patient Market Development: Rather than trying to boil the ocean, they focused intensively on Senegal first, achieving dominant market share before expanding to additional countries.

User-Centric Design: Instead of building technology first and finding users second, they designed Wave around the specific needs and constraints of African mobile money users.

Infrastructure Investment: While competitors focused on features and marketing, Wave invested in building robust technological and operational infrastructure that could scale across markets.

Local Partnership: Wave's agent network model leveraged existing local businesses rather than trying to build entirely new distribution channels.

Fee Transparency: In markets where hidden fees and complex pricing were standard, Wave's flat 1% fee structure provided clarity and trust.

Chapter 13: The Ripple Effect

Wave's success has implications beyond their own growth. By proving that African fintech companies can achieve billion-dollar valuations, they've opened doors for other entrepreneurs across the continent.

The company's focus on serving unbanked and underbanked populations - rather than just urban elites - has demonstrated the market potential of financial inclusion strategies.

Wave's technological approach has also influenced competitors. After Wave's entry into Senegal, Orange Money and other providers reduced their fees and improved their user experiences to compete.

"Initially spurned by many as hype, the measure persisted until it subverted the entire market, forcing competitors to follow suit. Orange Money and MTN Money quickly adjusted their fees to 1%, in Senegal and Côte D'Ivoire, to avoid losing old and new customers amid the sensation Wave had created," Quartz Africa reported.

Epilogue: From Ninth Grade Dream to Continental Mission

From Drew's ninth-grade goal of "creating a product that helps improve the lives of a million people" to Wave's mission of making "Africa the first cashless continent," the trajectory has been consistent: using technology to solve real problems for underserved populations.

Drew and Lincoln's journey from Brown University hallmates to billion-dollar company founders illustrates the power of combining technical skills with genuine understanding of market needs.

Their approach - starting with personal experience of the problem, building solutions incrementally, focusing on user value over vanity metrics - offers a template for other entrepreneurs tackling infrastructure challenges in developing markets.

"Always get on a plane to solve the problem," Drew advises with a smile, reflecting on his decision to move to Tanzania rather than trying to understand African markets from a distance.

Wave now serves over 20 million users across West Africa, processing billions of dollars in transactions annually. They've achieved Drew's original goal of helping a million people many times over, while building toward their larger mission of financial inclusion across an entire continent.

Captain Startup writes: "I've documented founders on every continent, but Drew Durbin and Lincoln Quirk represent something unique: the power of patient cultural building combined with genuine mission alignment. They didn't move to Africa to build a business - they built a business because they understood Africa. Their success proves that the best infrastructure is built by those who truly understand the problems they're solving. Build with intent."

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