Company details

HEADCOUNT

500-999

ORG TYPE

Startup

SECTOR

Finance

WEBSITE

https://www.wave.com

About the company

Wave is a fintech focused on “Africa-first” mobile money and affordable financial services, with major operating presence across multiple West and Central African countries. Wave hires across customer operations, risk, compliance, finance, people operations, and software and data roles, with a mix of in-country teams and remote global functions. Wave publicly frames the work around large-scale access to payments and banking-like services for consumers and merchants. Public information on junior progression is limited, but there are clear signals of structured internal support functions (training, rotations, internships).

Locations and presence

Wave lists a multi-country footprint across Africa with roles frequently based in cities such as Dakar, Abidjan, Bamako, Banjul, Ouagadougou, and Kampala, plus remote roles in other regions. Wave also recruits internationally for product and engineering roles that can be remote within a defined time-zone range.

Palpable Score

62.0

/ 100

Wave looks better than most startups on hiring structure and early-career support signals, especially through training, rotations, and a newly launched internship program. The score stays short of “top tier” because entry-level access is not consistently visible across functions, and public proof of early-career progression and retention is thin.

Pillar 1: Early-career access

Score

11.8

/ 20

The company has run an internship program in Senegal (publicly described as a first cohort), which is a real entry point for students.

Wave advertises ongoing “internship and Support rotation programs” as something People partners manage, which suggests repeatable early-career intake beyond one-off internships.

The company’s wider job mix still leans toward experienced hires in engineering, product, and many HQ-style functions, so a graduate cannot rely on steady 0–3 year openings year-round.

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Pillar 2: Hiring fairness and transparency

Score

13.2

/ 20

The company has strong public interview satisfaction signals in major review aggregators, which points to a generally respectful candidate experience.
Wave uses a centralized careers site with role-specific pages, which supports consistent applications and reduces “DM-only” or informal hiring.
The company does not consistently publish what the steps are, how long the process takes, or whether take-homes are used, so transparency varies by team and role.

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Pillar 3: Learning and support

Score

14.0

/ 20

The company hires for roles explicitly focused on training and on-the-job coaching in customer support, which is a concrete learning signal for large early-career populations.
Wave’s People team scope includes managing internship and rotation programs with onboarding and integration, which usually translates into real ramp support for juniors.
The company rarely publishes specific early-career learning mechanics inside job descriptions (buddy systems, review cadence, protected training time), which limits how confidently support quality can be assessed.

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Pillar 4: Pay fairness and stability

Score

12.4

/ 20

The company publicly states that some roles use a transparent compensation formula and include equity, which is a strong pay-fairness signal when consistently applied.
Wave offers practical stability supports for some remote roles (travel to operating countries and a coworker meet-up stipend), which can improve early-career connectedness and retention.
The company does not consistently publish salary ranges across roles and locations, especially for in-country operations roles, which caps confidence on pay fairness for new graduates.

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Pillar 5: Early-career outcomes

Score

10.6

/ 20

The company does not publish outcome data such as promotion timelines, internship-to-offer conversion rates, or early-career retention over 12–24 months.
Wave’s public mention of identifying high-performing rotation participants for conversion opportunities suggests a pathway to progression, but it is not backed by published numbers or examples.
The company’s LinkedIn footprint signals ongoing team growth across multiple countries, but it does not provide verifiable junior progression patterns that can be summarised confidently.

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