Wave

Wave launched in Toronto in 2009, offering small business owners genuinely free accounting, invoicing and receipt-scanning software at a time when most competing tools charged ongoing subscription fees that could be a meaningful cost for a very small business or solo entrepreneur. Rather than charging for the core software, Wave built its business model around optional paid add-on services, including payment processing and payroll, betting that a large free user base would convert a meaningful share into paying customers for those extras.

An acquisition by H&R Block

That model proved successful enough to attract significant venture funding and build a large small-business user base across North America, and in 2019 American tax preparation company H&R Block acquired Wave, integrating its accounting tools with H&R Block's existing small-business services. Wave has continued operating from Toronto under H&R Block's ownership, remaining one of the more prominent examples of a Toronto fintech startup building a large customer base around a free-software model rather than a traditional subscription.

Sources

• Wikipedia — Wave (payment service)
• BetaKit — Wave Toronto fintech history

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