Open bank fintech Waave bags $4.7 million in seed round

A Sydney-based fintech that uses Open Banking technology to offer competitive merchant fees has raised $4.7 million in a seed round backed by Menulog CEO Morten Belling and e-commerce investor Paul Greenberg.

Founded in 2022 by Ben Zyl, Mark Connolly and Peter Traianou, who together have decades of experience working for PayPal, AfterPay, NAB and Adyen, Waave is a payment app that allows customers to manage their finances from one place.

The company’s flagship product is Pay by Bank, which claims to be the first payment platform to offer Open Banking to both business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) customers.

Open banking gives consumers the choice to share their data with external platforms to access their savings and credit data, but is limited to third parties accredited by the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC).

Pay by Bank charges a flat transaction fee of 28 cents, making it up to 80 percent cheaper than card payments that process an average cart value of $100. It requires no passwords, and instead uses authentication methods such as FaceID and TouchID to authorize transactions.

The platform works across all Australian banks, allowing customers to make payments both online and in store.

To avoid confusion, Waave has no connection to the Pay by Bank joint venture between Bank of America and Banked Ltd – a separate payment system currently only available in the UK.

“We think the payments industry is archaic and the way we pay today is clumsy and outdated,” Zyl said.

“People have become complacent with card dominance – businesses shouldn’t pay exorbitant fees to receive payments and customers should have full control and visibility over their money.

“We are here to drive change by bringing back the connection between consumers and businesses.”

Since mid-2020, Australia’s banking customers have been able to authorize accredited third parties to access their savings and credit card data. Later that year, customers were also allowed to give accredited third parties access to data on mortgages, personal loans and joint bank accounts.

According to London-based consumer research firm The Business Research Company, the global Open Banking market is expected to reach a value of $48.13 billion by 2026.

From July, Waave plans to roll out its services to key business e-commerce customers both online and in-store across Australia. The team also believes there is room to grow internationally together with increased uptake of Open Banking globally.

“We will adapt, develop and expand our platform ecosystem and products, but our core purpose will always come back to improving the connection between consumers and businesses,” said Traianou.

Waave is an ACCC accredited data receiver and is regulated by AUSTRAC, which means customer data is secured with the highest encryption management systems.

“Waave is a champion for merchants at a time when they are experiencing cost pressures from all directions,” said National Online Retailers Association (NORA) founder and investor Paul Greenberg.

“Waave will also be welcomed by consumers – an easy, convenient and secure way to pay. Many of us want to ‘spring’ our wallets.

“Getting rid of the high cost, underutilized payment solutions is easy and relieving. Waave makes this possible by cutting out the middleman.”