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Wave, la tornade bleue qui s’impose dans le paiement mobile en Afrique de l’Ouest

La start-up américaine a bouleversé les opérateurs des télécoms et le marché des services financiers digitaux au Sénégal et en Côte d’Ivoire.

Par  Théa Ollivier   (Dakar, correspondance) et Yassin Ciyow   (Abidjan, correspondance)

Temps de Lecture 5 min.

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Dans la guerre que se livrent les opérateurs de paiement mobile en Afrique, la couleur a son importance. A Abidjan, derrière la grille de sa boutique orange et jaune, qui signale la vente de services Orange et MTN, Mariam Coulibaly, commerçante de 35 ans, se désole : « Les clients ne s’arrêtent plus, car ma devanture n’a pas de bleu ni le fanion avec le pingouin » , les emblèmes de Wave désormais omniprésents dans les rues de la capitale économique ivoirienne. « Cela fait plus d’un mois que j’ai demandé un agrément, mais je n’ai toujours rien reçu , poursuit la vendeuse, dépitée . Ils me disent qu’ils sont débordés. »

La start-up créée il y a une décennie par deux Américains – Drew Durbin et Lincoln Quirk – est arrivée en Côte d’Ivoire en avril 2021. En six mois, elle s’est déjà taillé une belle place sur le marché, à en juger par le « buzz » que son arrivée suscite et les commentaires inquiets tenus en privé par certains de ses concurrents (non cotée en bourse, elle ne communique pas de chiffres).

Prenant le contrepied des grilles tarifaires complexes des opérateurs historiques, l’entreprise s’est distinguée en offrant à ses clients la gratuité des opérations de dépôt et de retrait d’argent, ainsi qu’un taux fixe de 1 % sur les transferts nationaux.

« L’écosystème bouillonnant des fintechs »

Orange, MTN et Moov, les trois grands opérateurs locaux, qui taxaient entre 3 et 10 % les transactions similaires, ont d’abord semblé hésiter face à cette vague bleue. Dans un premier temps, ils ont multiplié les offres promotionnelles sans pour autant baisser leurs prix dans la durée. Les consommateurs ivoiriens ont réagi sur les réseaux sociaux en menaçant d’abandonner leurs opérateurs traditionnels. Entre août et octobre, ceux-ci ont donc fini par s’aligner sur les tarifs mis en place par le nouveau venu.

Un scénario comparable s’était déroulé au Sénégal, où la start-up a débuté ses activités dès 2018, attirée notamment par « l’écosystème bouillonnant des fintechs » , selon Coura Sène Tine, directrice générale de Wave dans ce pays d’Afrique de l’Ouest. L’entreprise y a installé son siège social africain et fait son trou en cassant les prix, forçant Orange Money, son principal concurrent, à baisser de 80 % ses tarifs en juin 2021.

Cette stratégie offensive a d’abord ciblé les personnes utilisant essentiellement du cash, comme les agriculteurs ou les pêcheurs dans les zones rurales, avant de s’attaquer aux centres urbains. Sans vouloir divulguer des chiffres précis, Coura Sène Tine affirme qu’environ la moitié de la population adulte sénégalaise utilise déjà ses services.

Depuis, avec Orange, la guerre est déclarée. Les deux opérateurs n’ont jamais réussi à s’entendre sur un partenariat, Wave se retrouvant ainsi empêché de distribuer du crédit téléphonique Orange via sa plate-forme. Pour avoir gain de cause, la start-up a saisi en mars l’autorité de régulation des télécommunications, qui a tranché en sa faveur.

« Casser les prix »

La fintech fait de plus en plus parler d’elle, et pas seulement à cause de ces bisbilles étalées sur la place publique par voie de communiqués. Les projecteurs se sont à nouveau braqués sur elle après la conclusion, en septembre, d’une levée de fond record de 200 millions de dollars.

Comptant des investisseurs de premier plan à son tour de table (les américains Stripe ou Founders Fund, le fonds Partech Africa…), Wave atteint désormais une valorisation de 1,7 milliard de dollars. Elle intègre ainsi le club prestigieux des « licornes » (start-up valorisée à plus d’un milliard de dollars), une première en Afrique francophone.

Wave est-elle là pour durer ? « Elle ne mise pas sur les gros montants mais sur le nombre de transactions effectuées. La stratégie, c’est de casser les prix, gagner des parts de marché puis de se diversifier sur le long terme » , analyse Cheikh Ndiaye, consultant en fintech pour la Société financière internationale (SFI), la banche de la Banque mondiale consacrée au secteur privé.

En Côte d’Ivoire, l’autorité de régulation des télécoms a indiqué, dans un communiqué publié le 26 octobre, « se réjouir de la dynamique concurrentielle sur ce marché [du mobile money] qui concourt efficacement à l’inclusion financière de nos populations, dans un contexte marqué par la lutte contre la cherté de la vie ».

Près de 20 000 distributeurs en difficulté

Certains s’interrogent toutefois sur la viabilité d’un modèle qui risque de mettre des années avant de devenir rentable. D’autres craignent que la guerre des prix entre opérateurs affecte la valeur du marché et fragilise, par ricochet, ceux qui en dépendent.

Ainsi, Abdoulaye*, gérant d’une boutique multiservice du centre-ville de Dakar, remarque que la majorité des clients demandent aujourd’hui les services de Wave. « Mais ce n’est pas évident pour les entrepreneurs comme moi, car avec la gratuité du service, nous touchons moins de commissions, certains ont même dû fermer boutique. Wave s’est imposé et ne nous a pas laissé le choix » , lance-t-il d’une traite.

« La valeur du marché a été divisée par quatre [au Sénégal]  » depuis que les prix ont chuté sous la pression de Wave, affirme aussi Cheikh Tidiane Sarr, directeur d’Orange Money Sénégal. Selon lui, les distributeurs qui « n’ont pas les reins solides vont disparaître » . Ils seraient près de 20 000 dans le pays. Et les mêmes craintes s’expriment en Côte d’Ivoire, les commerçants spécialisés dans la monnaie électronique s’inquiétant d’une baisse de leurs revenus.

De son côté, Wave affirme que l’augmentation du volume des transactions permettra à chacun d’y trouver son compte. Pleine d’ambition, la start-up, qui vient de se lancer au Mali et en Ouganda, envisage désormais de se développer dans les transferts frontaliers entre les pays de l’Union économique et monétaire ouest-africaine (Uemoa). Un marché où tout reste à construire.

Et l’entreprise américano-sénégalaise pourrait bien ne pas se limiter à l’activité de transfert d’argent. « Avec l’augmentation massive du nombre d’utilisateurs, Wave a accès à leurs données et donc à leurs comportements financiers. A terme, cela pourrait leur permettre de proposer d’autres services, comme du crédit digital, quitte à demander un agrément bancaire » , anticipe Cheikh Ndiaye de la SFI.

De quoi étoffer la compétition avec Orange, même si les filiales du groupe français affichent leur sérénité. « Nous avons un écosystème de services très large qui n’a rien à voir avec celui de nos concurrents » , indique Cheikh Tidiane Sarr, en allusion aux services de paiements en ligne et de microcrédit pour lesquels l’entreprise estime avoir un temps d’avance sur son rival américain. La bataille ne fait sans doute que commencer.

* Le prénom a été modifié

Théa Ollivier  (Dakar, correspondance) et Yassin Ciyow  (Abidjan, correspondance)

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Entretien exclusif avec Coura Tine Sène, Directrice Générale de Wave Mobile Money

«Nous restons concentrés sur notre mission qui est d’offrir un accès simple, rapide et à moindre coût aux services financiers de base pour tous… »

Une licorne qui change le quotidien de ses usagers. wave comme son nom l’indique est la nouvelle vague qui révolutionne en ce moment les services de transfert et de paiement au sénégal. «un business model plus juste pour tous les acteurs, allant des banques partenaires aux clients finaux en passant par les partenaires agents et marchands», comme le déclare coura tine sène, directrice générale de wave mobile money. entretien., comment présenteriez-vous wave dans son tour de table et ses investissements .

Wave Mobile Money est une Fintech à fort impact opérant exclusivement en Afrique. C’est aussi l’une des startups avec le plus fort taux de croissance du continent. Nous offrons des services financiers mobiles à forte proposition de valeur avec l’ambition de promouvoir l’inclusion financière en Afrique sub-saharienne où encore, en 2017, près de 60% des populations n’avait toujours pas accès à des services financiers. Nous rendons les transactions financières (envoi, retrait et dépôt d’argent, paiements de factures, etc.) aussi simples qu’envoyer un sms avec une solution extrêmement facile d’utilisation, financièrement abordable, et donc radicalement inclusive.

Aujourd’hui, après 3 ans d’activité au Sénégal, plus de la moitié de la population adulte utilise activement notre solution. Pour atteindre ces résultats, nous avons investi au niveau technologique, aussi bien pour les clients que pour notre réseau d’agents, en les dotant d’outils performants leur permettant de faire leurs opérations facilement, rapidement et en toute sécurité. Au delà du réseau d’agents et de la technologie, nous avons également investi pour mettre en place un business model plus juste pour tous les acteurs, allant des banques partenaires aux clients finaux en passant par les partenaires agents et marchands.

Wave s’est solidement implantée au Sénégal. Au delà des tarifs, qu’est-ce qui constitue la spécificité de votre démarche ?

L’obsession d’apporter une vraie solution adaptée aux besoins des utilisateurs et à leurs contraintes. Chez Wave, nous ne faisons pas de compromis avec notre mission. Nous restons inlassablement concentrés sur la proposition de valeur qui est centrée sur l’amélioration du quotidien des populations. L’idée est d’apporter véritablement de l’accessibilité et de la simplicité, même à ceux qui ne possèdent pas de smartphone. Cela se traduit aussi bien financièrement avec nos tarifs exceptionnellement abordables que techniquement avec une technologie de notre temps, la technologie QR qui rend l’expérience super intuitive et efficace pour les clients. A noter aussi que notre solution est à portée de tout détenteur de numéro de téléphone mobile, quelque soit son opérateur.

Vous avez récemment levé 200 millions de dollars. Quel est votre plan de développement dans l’espace sous régional et international?

Wave Mobile Money compte se développer là où se trouve les besoins de faciliter l’accès aux services financiers et de promouvoir l’inclusion financière, c’est à dire pratiquement partout en Afrique subsaharienne. Cependant, il nous faut y aller progressivement car nous sommes encore une startup qui doit garder la maîtrise de son développement et qui doit nouer des partenariats forts. En plus du Sénégal, nous opérons actuellement en Côte d’Ivoire, au Mali et en Ouganda. D’autres pays de la sous- région ouest-africaine sont dans notre plan de développement et nous ne manquerons pas de les annoncer officiellement au fur et à mesure que nous nous y lancerons.

Le fait de ne pas être adossé sur un opérateur des télécoms solide ne constitue- t-il pas un handicap à moyen terme ?

Absolument pas. Il est vrai que les services mobile money les plus connus dans nos pays sont proposés par des filiales d’opérateur de télécommunications, mais il en existe d’autres, comme ceux proposés par les banques. Être adossé sur un opérateur de télécoms n’est donc pas la seule manière de faire du mobile money. Au contraire, à l’ère de l’innovation et de la transformation digitales, nous misons sur l’interopérabilité. Le statut indépendant de Wave est donc un atout qui permet de nouer des partenariats forts et sans contrainte, de collaborer avec les différents régulateurs, aussi bien financiers que télécoms, en ouvrant ainsi la voie à de nouvelles perspectives à différents niveaux : produits et services, canaux d’accès, business model, etc.

Confirmez-vous ce fait que Wave est la première licorne de l’Afrique francophone. « What Will be the next » comme on dit en bon français ?

Wave Mobile Money est devenue une licorne. C’est un fait mais nous restons concentrés sur notre mission qui est d’offrir un accès simple, rapide et à moindre coût aux services financiers de base pour tous, quel que soit le statut social, le revenu ou le lieu d’habitation. Cette mission répond parfaitement aux préoccupations de nos Etats et Banques Centrales dont l’objectif est l’inclusion financière des populations africaines. Ainsi, The next to come, c’est “Work goes on”, si je puis le dire ainsi. Le travail continue et s’intensifie. Il y a encore des millions de personnes partout en Afrique subsaharienne qui attendent d’être incluses financièrement et qui ont besoin de solutions adaptées à leur quotidien. Nous continuerons d’innover pour les satisfaire et de nous étendre partout où le besoin d’inclusion financière se fait sentir, en toute conformité avec les différentes réglementations.

Directeur de publication de Financial Afrik. Dans la presse économique africaine depuis plus de 20 ans, Adama Wade a eu à exercer au Maroc dans plusieurs rédactions, notamment La Vie Industrielle et Agricole, La Vie Touristique, Demain Magazine, Aujourd'hui Le Maroc et Les Afriques. Capitaine au Long Cours de la Marine Marchande et titulaire d'un Master en Communication des Organisations, Adama Wade a publié un essai, «Le mythe de Tarzan», qui décrit le complexe géopolitique de l’Afrique.

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Sénégal, Côte d’Ivoire : qui est Wave, la fintech qui bouscule le mobile money ?

Créée par deux Américains pour baisser les frais des transactions en mobile money, la start-up est sous le feu des projecteurs depuis qu’Orange tente de freiner son développement au Sénégal.

Les yeux rivés sur Free, Orange Sénégal ne semble pas avoir vu venir la menace Wave sur le segment du mobile money. Pris de court par l’offre ultra concurrentielle que propose depuis mai 2020 cette start-up américaine spécialisée dans les transactions à bas coûts, le leader des télécoms a décidé début juin de lui bloquer la possibilité de distribuer du crédit téléphonique via son application mobile et par code USSD.

Désaccord commercial

« Après plusieurs échanges avec l’opérateur téléphonique, un accord nous permettant de vendre du crédit directement ou par l’intermédiaire d’un grossiste agréé n’a toujours pas été conclu », a ainsi confirmé Wave dans un communiqué publié le 5 juin, annonçant aussi que l’Autorité de régulation des télécoms et des postes (ARTP) a été saisie pour « qu’une décision équitable puisse être prise ».

« Wave a dû demander de pouvoir avoir la même commission que le circuit normal de distribution d’Orange et ce dernier a refusé », analyse un bon connaisseur des télécoms sénégalaises.

Quelques heures après la missive de Wave , Orange s’est à son tour fendu d’un communiqué assurant que l’opérateur a fait des propositions « conformes à celles offertes à [ses] autres prestataires ». Le groupe de télécoms estime que Wave réclame un traitement particulier.

Frais de 1 %

Créé en 2011 par Drew Durbin et Lincoln Quirk, deux Américains installés à New York, et enregistré en 2016 à Dakar, Wave applique des frais fixes de transaction à hauteur de 1 % entre particuliers et épargne à ses utilisateurs des frais supplémentaires sur les paiements de factures en les reportant sur les entreprises – au contraire de son concurrent qui fait payer cette charge à ses clients.

Avec ce modèle, la start-up dirigée à Dakar par Coura Sène – une ancienne d’ InTouch – a convaincu d’importants investisseurs d’entrer à son capital. Le français Partech et le prestigieux incubateur américain Y Combinator font ainsi partie de son tour de table, tout comme Founders Fund et Serena Ventures, deux sociétés californiennes de capital-risque. Au total, le service qui s’est lié aux banques UBA et Ecobank pour exercer au Sénégal a levé 13,8 millions de dollars depuis sa création.

    « Les usagers se sentent insultés car ils pensent que pendant longtemps Orange leur a imposé des frais abusifs

Afin de s’aligner sur cette concurrence, Orange a décidé depuis le 1er juin de baisser ses frais de paiement de factures à 1 % et, pour compenser, de prélever à son tour un pourcentage sur les transactions entre particuliers, selon un principe de paliers calculé en fonction du montant envoyé (certaines transactions peuvent être ainsi taxées à hauteur de 10 %).

Cette baisse rapide et soudaine des prix ne passe pas à Dakar : « Les usagers se sentent insultés car ils pensent que pendant longtemps, Orange leur a imposé des frais abusifs », témoigne un entrepreneur dakarois.

Un litige qui va durer

Le litige entre Wave et Orange est désormais dans les mains du régulateur des télécoms. Cela ne veut pas dire que la question sera rapidement réglée : « En principe, cette affaire concerne un contrat commercial de distribution de gré à gré qui n’est pas régulé, [donc la démarche de Wave] est étonnante », confie à Jeune Afrique Fabrice André, directeur général adjoint de Sonatel.

Pour Sonatel, l’objectif est donc de miser sur l’absence de régulation du secteur du mobile money au Sénégal.

« L’ARTP pourrait bien se déclarer incompétente, car le marché qui est impacté par le comportement d’Orange GSM n’est pas le marché des télécommunications, mais celui du mobile money, confirme un spécialiste sénégalais de la régulation des télécoms, également dirigeant d’un opérateur panafricain. En soi, la discrimination n’est pas une pratique proscrite lorsqu’on arrive à démontrer que les deux entités discriminées n’appartiennent pas la même famille », poursuit-il.

Mais si le régulateur télécoms se déclarait incompétent, cette affaire complexe pourrait remonter au niveau de la Banque centrale des États d’Afrique de l’Ouest (BCEAO), ou encore retomber dans le droit commun au niveau de l’Autorité de la concurrence.

« La seule certitude que j’ai, c’est qu’Orange Money a été sérieusement bousculé par Wave et est en train de recevoir un coup de main de Orange GSM pour essayer de contenir la vague bleue [de l’identité commerciale de Wave] », estime notre expert de la régulation.

Même concurrence en Côte d’Ivoire ?

En Côte d’Ivoire, où Wave s’est lancé en avril 2021, le litige sénégalais est surveillé de près. « Chaque pays à son propre modèle de distribution. Dans le cas de la Côte d’Ivoire, nous pratiquons le zonage via quatorze distributeurs exclusifs avec lesquels nous travaillons depuis près de quinze ans. Les contrats ont été renouvelés en octobre 2020 et Wave n’a pas soumissionné », indique Mamadou Bamba, directeur général d’Orange Côte d’Ivoire.

Service encore récent dans ce pays d’Afrique de l’Ouest, Wave est en pleine opération de communication pour se faire connaître. Le 25 mai, l’application a organisé un panel à Abidjan autour du rôle des fintech dans l’inclusion financière.

Aux côtés de Daniel Ahouassa, cofondateur du groupe de media en ligne Weblogy, le cofondateur de Wave Drew Durbin ainsi que Coura Sène et Bruno Belinga, directeur des opérations de la fintech, en ont profité pour promouvoir leur modèle.

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How Wave is navigating the economic downturn with its radical business model

Image Source: Wave

Wave, a leading mobile money provider, became a household name 4 years ago across francophone West Africa for 2 different reasons: crushing monopoly and bringing the mobile money pricing structure down by 80% in Senegal.  For the rest of the world, its popularity arrived when it became the first unicorn from the francophone Africa region following its $200 million fundraiser last year. 

But none of this happened without heaps of recurring challenges. The fintech company first launched in Senegal in 2018 and charged a 1% transaction fee on transfers while offering withdrawals, deposits and bill payments (water, airtime, and electricity) for free. The low fees/free model looked like a bogus customer acquisition strategy that’d die a natural death. Before Wave’s entry, telecoms companies like Orange, whose mobile money operation Orange Money dominated the market, were charging between 6–10% transaction fee. As expected, Orange frowned at Wave’s alien idea and referred to it as “a dangerous method that would destroy the country’s economic fabric.”

Ndiaye Alioune, managing director at Orange, once claimed in an interview that “Wave’s strategy led to Orange Money’s network of distributors, who used to share half of the telecom company’s turnover, losing 50% of their income, and also caused the loss of more than 20,000 jobs in Senegal and could have more damage in the future.”

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But the users thought otherwise as they migrated to Wave in mass. After all, Wave was the market saviour who’d come to provide them with affordable alternatives. It would soon become apparent that the model of charging customers for cash withdrawals was certain to fail and the entire mobile money market must quickly adjust to Wave’s radical rulebook to stay relevant. Since June 1, 2021, Orange, particularly, has maintained a flat charge of 1% on transfers and other players like Free and E-Money have since followed suit.

And that was how the entire market aligned to and validated Wave’s radical business model. The startup has since expanded into Cote d’Ivoire and quickly snagged millions of users. Following its successful blueprint, the company expanded into Mali, Uganda, and Burkina Faso. Even though Wave didn’t respond to TechCabal’s question about its profitability, business seemed to be good, and the open war between the players appeared to have subsided. But a few weeks ago, Wave announced that it was laying off 15% of its 2000-strong workforce and would be pausing its expansion effort while centering focus back on its 2 major markets (Senegal and Côte D’Ivoire) where it has combined users of over 10 million. This development signals to competitors and market commentators to put the sustainability of Wave’s model back under scrutiny.

The concerns are: Maybe the venture funding has stopped coming; is this the end of growth for Wave? How long can it stay afloat without the fast growth enabled by VC cash? Why can’t Wave expand seamlessly? 

“When you are a fast-growing and regulated financial services business like Wave is, you have to constantly navigate new paradigms (the global economic downturn and capital markets) and quickly adapt and alter strategies to prioritize our customers and keep on delivering on our promises of always reliable and affordable financial services.” Sid Sridhar , the company’s global head of business, told TechCabal. “The company is still growing rapidly but we have to slow down the pace of entry into new markets to ensure we’re focused on serving the 10 millions+ active users in existing markets.”

“We weren’t motivated to become a unicorn”: Wave’s West Africa head reflects on startup’s rapid growth

This response from Sridhar confirmed the speculation that the company was adjusting to the current VC funding market. After all, the company must continue deploying huge cash to take on the big telecoms and banks to see its “cashless Africa” vision to fruition, and it must do so in every market it expands into. The low fees/free model alone can’t cut it for the company anymore, not now that competitors have adopted the model at scale.  

Alioune, the Orange boss, had also said that Wave’s model is disruptive because it is financed by venture capital funds with little regard for short-term profitability. “They invest money in the hope that the startup will manage to take over the entire market and then exit, recovering 10x to 15x of their initial investment,” he said. “It’s like the Amazon model: they burn cash—the e-commerce site has been doing this for over a decade—in the hopes of eliminating the competition.”

It’s true that the mega venture funding shot Wave’s ambition to the moon and gave it leverage to really compete. Now in the absence of big-ticket VC financing due to the global economic downturn, what would realistically be the fate of the francophone unicorn? The answer is simple: cut costs, source alternative funding, or both. Wave then went for both. It cut costs by calling off its expansion plan, downsizing its workforce and then raising a debt fund of $92 million, the biggest debt funding yet in Africa, from the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and some other big lenders. 

“Debt funding is always a desired source of capital, as it’s generally much cheaper than equity (where you have to give up ownership). Like most large and established businesses, a mix of debt and equity is the ideal way to capitalise a growing company,” Sridhar said. “Also, our businesses in Senegal and Cote d’Ivoire are more mature and stable whilst still growing rapidly, which is something lenders look for. We’ve optimized our balance sheet by raising both debt and equity capital and found a great partner in IFC to lead the debt round. We’ll continue to raise both debt and equity capital going forward.” 

This means that while expansion has now been undrafted, the new capital injection provides Wave a war chest wide enough to continue snagging market share from Orange and its cohorts in Senegal and Cote d’Ivoire.  

”When a business continues to put customers first with a viable model, it will continue to grow sustainably as there are still tens of millions of people that need access to affordable financial services in Africa,” Sridhar concluded. 

Comparing Wave to Amazon is spot on. Besides the huge capital invested in both businesses, their long-term pricing strategy and the plethora of products make them the real market winners. 

More from this author

Notre mission, faire de l’Afrique le premier continent cashless du monde

Sur un continent où plus de la moitié de la population n’a pas de compte bancaire, Wave offre le premier réseau de services financiers sans frais de gestion de compte, disponible instantanément et partout !

Nous construisons une infrastructure financière qui facilite le quotidien

Le succès du mobile money au Kenya a sorti près d’un million de personnes de la pauvreté. Pourtant, plus de 10 ans plus tard, la plupart des Africains n’ont toujours pas accès à des outils d’épargne, de transfert ou de crédit abordables qui leur permettraient d’entreprendre et assurer les besoins de leurs familles.

Wave apporte une solution au problème en utilisant la technologie pour bâtir un réseau financier radicalement inclusif et extrêmement abordable.

L’équipe dirigeante

Nos Co-fondateurs Drew Durbin (à gauche, Directeur Général) et Lincoln Quirk (à droite, Directeur Produit) se sont rencontrés en première année d’université où ils étaient voisins de palier. Leur amour pour le développement de produits simples à fort impact social en fit rapidement des amis.

Ils ont d’abord développé Sendwave , à ce jour leader dans les transferts d’argent digitaux vers l’Afrique. Wave est ensuite né de la volonté de vulgariser la finance digitale en Afrique.

Directrice Régionale

Kizito Okute

Directeur des opérations agent.

Directeur technique

Chris Williamson

Directeur paiements.

Sid Sridhar

Directeur des affaires.

Emily Austin

Directrice talents et culture.

Katier Bamba

Directeur général côte d'ivoire.

Kevin Odiorne

Directeur financier, soutenu par des investisseurs réputés.

Économie Publié le jeudi 21 juillet 2022 | Abidjan.net

Publireportage - Inclusion financière : Wave, la start-up au service des Africains

En seulement quatre années, Wave a bousculé le marché du mobile money au Sénégal et en Côte d’Ivoire. Fort de ses premiers succès, le groupe voit plus loin, plus grand. Objectif : rendre l’accès aux services financiers facile et universel pour les millions d’Africains qui en sont aujourd’hui privés.

LA VAGUE BLEUE a déferlé sur l’Afrique de l’Ouest. Arrivée en 2018 au Sénégal, Wave Mobile Money, a lancé une offre sans équivalent à l’époque : baisser les frais de transaction entre particuliers à un niveau plancher, soit 1% pour les transferts, et supprimer, pour leurs usagers, les frais de dépôts et de retraits sur leurs portefeuilles électroniques. Une offre novatrice et ultra-concurrentielle, qui a bousculé le marché sénégalais du mobile money jusqu’alors dominé par quelques autres acteurs.

Dans une période marquée par la pandémie de Covid-19, qui imposait partout des restrictions de déplacement, l’offre de Wave Mobile Money a remporté un succès immédiat. « Facile d’accès, rapide dans son exécution et sécurisé techniquement, Wave Mobile Money est devenu un canal privilégié pour contrer les effets de la pandémie », souligne, depuis Dakar, Coura Carine Sène, directrice régionale de Wave pour l’espace de l’Union économique et monétaire ouest-africaine (Uemoa).

Selon le rapport de la GSMA, en 2020, l’Afrique était de loin le premier continent dans le domaine du mobile money, avec un volume annuel de 27,5 milliards de transactions. Plus de 500 millions d’utilisateurs et quelque 495 milliards de dollars échangés sur l’ensemble du continent, dont 80% du territoire sont couverts par ce type de services.

Des produits simples à fort impact social

L’histoire de Wave Mobile Money prend sa source au Sénégal en 2018 avec une mission: «faire de l'Afrique le premier continent sans cash. Notre ambition est de construire un réseau financier radicalement inclusif et accessible, soutiennent les cofondateurs de Wave. Aucun frais de gestion de compte, disponible instantanément et accepté partout. Nous avons développé, pour le continent africain, la plateforme de monnaie électronique la plus abordable, centrée sur l’utilisateur et propulsée par la technologie, » affirme l’un de ces co-fondateurs, Drew Durbin.

En Septembre 2021, la jeune fintech Wave lève 200 millions de dollars (soit environ 128 milliards de FCFA) pour faire une différence durable dans le quotidien des populations. Wave mobile money qui a gagné le cœur de millions de Sénégalais poursuit sa marche pour faire de l’inclusion financière une réalité pour tous. L’Objectif: vulgariser la finance digitale en Afrique. Et toujours la même passion : développer des produits simples à fort impact social. Coura Tine Sène et les fondateurs ont bouclé le tour de table financier avec des partenaires de renom comme Partech, Sequoia Heritage, Founders Fund, Stripe et Ribbit, fidèles de la première heure. Doté de la confiance des investisseurs, qui lui offrent des moyens à l’échelle de ses objectifs, Wave Mobile Money a vu son activité croître de façon exponentielle ces dernières années. 

Et le pingouin, animal symbole de sociabilité, poursuit ainsi sa marche et gagne la confiance et le cœur de millions d’utilisateurs au Sénégal, en Côte d'Ivoire, au Mali, au Burkina Faso, et en Ouganda.

Le 14 avril 2022 marque une nouvelle ère dans la vie de la Fintech. Wave Digital Finance, filiale du Groupe Wave Mobile Money (Wave), devient la première structure non-bancaire, non-opérateur de télécommunications au Sénégal à obtenir une licence d’Établissement de Monnaie Électronique (EME) par la Banque Centrale des États de l’Afrique de l’Ouest - BCEAO. Cette première dans l’Union Économique Monétaire Ouest Africaine, UEMOA, est un signal fort qu’il faudra désormais compter sur les fintechs pour réussir l’inclusion financière en Afrique. 

La première licorne d’Afrique francophone

Wave Mobile Money compte quelque dix millions d’utilisateurs actifs dans cinq pays : côté francophone, le Sénégal, son premier marché avec six millions d’usagers, la Côte d’Ivoire, le Mali et le Burkina Faso ; côté anglophone, l’Ouganda. Le groupe est désormais valorisé à plus d’un milliard de dollars, ce qui en fait la première licorne d’Afrique francophone.

Dans un continent où plus de la moitié de la population n’a pas de compte bancaire, Wave offre le premier réseau de services financiers sans frais de gestion de compte, disponible instantanément et partout. 

«Ce qui fait la différence avec Wave, c’est que nous offrons des produits qui sont conçus pour offrir la meilleure expérience possible au client qui est au centre de notre proposition de valeurs. », explique Manou Guilé Mbodj, directeur de Wave Sénégal.

Nouvelle étape clé dans son développement, Wave annonce, le 6 juillet dernier, un accord de financement de 90 millions d’euros avec la Société Financière Internationale (IFC) pour renforcer l'inclusion financière et soutenir la croissance économique au Sénégal et en Côte d'Ivoire. Ce financement de l’IFC comprend un prêt de 25 millions pour son propre compte, ainsi que des prêts de 41 millions de plusieurs investisseurs (Symbiotics, Blue Orchard, responsAbility et Lendable) et de 24 millions des fonds souverains scandinaves Finnfund et Norfund. 

« Favoriser l'accès aux services financiers pour les populations à faible revenu non bancarisées est une priorité pour IFC, a déclaré à cette occasion Aliou Maïga, directeur régional d'IFC pour l'Afrique de l'Ouest et centrale. Notre investissement dans Wave va non seulement promouvoir un secteur financier plus inclusif, mais il va aussi grandement contribuer à favoriser l'essor des solutions numériques en Afrique de l'Ouest. »

Avec ce nouveau soutien de poids de la Société Financière Internationale, membre du Groupe de la Banque mondiale, Wave Mobile Money contribuera à démocratiser toujours plus l’accès à des services financiers adaptés et à des coûts abordables, améliorant les conditions de vie de millions d’Africains sur le continent.

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Accounting | What is

What Is Wave Financial Software & What Does It Do?

Published May 22, 2023

REVIEWED BY: Tim Yoder, Ph.D., CPA

WRITTEN BY: Danielle Bauter

This article is part of a larger series on Accounting Software .

• 1 Products, Services & Integrations
• 2 Pricing & Business Model
• 3 The History
• 5 Bottom Line

Wave Financial is a financial management software designed specifically for small businesses. It offers a suite of tools that includes accounting, invoicing, payroll, payment processing, receipt scanning, and a business checking account for select users. Wave Accounting is known for its user-friendly interface and is often recommended to small business owners who aren’t accounting experts. We even selected it as one of the best QuickBooks alternatives .

Wave Financial’s services are centered on and integrated with Wave Accounting, which is free forever. To learn more about what is Wave Financial best for, sign up for an account with Wave Accounting and explore your options.

Visit Wave Accounting

Wave Financial Products, Services & Integrations

One of the benefits of using Wave Financial’s software is the ease of using products and services that integrate seamlessly together. It offers payroll, invoicing, an assisted bookkeeping service, the ability to accept online payments, and a Wave Money account for qualified users.

Wave Accounting

Wave Accounting provides all of the standard accounting features. We chose it as one of the leading small business accounting software , specifically as the best free solution for tracking income and expenses.

It allows you to connect your bank and credit card accounts, invoice customers, manage unpaid bills, add sales tax to invoices, bills, estimates, and expense and income transactions. However, since Wave Accounting is free, it has some limitations. For instance, its reconciliation features are limited, and it doesn’t allow you to print checks.

Wave dashboard (Source: Wave)

One of its strengths is that there is no limit to the number of users. Also, in our review of Wave Accounting , the platform scored relatively well in reporting. This is given its ability to generate several common reports, like profit and loss (P&L) statements, accounts receivable (A/R) aging, accounts payable (A/P) aging, general ledger (GL), and expenses by vendor.

Wave Accounting works seamlessly with Wave Financial’s other solutions, such as Wave Payroll, Wave Invoicing, and Wave Payments, to help you manage your finances.

Wave Payroll

Starting at $20 per month plus $6 per employee, Wave Payroll streamlines the payroll process for small businesses by automating tasks such as calculating and filing taxes, generating paystubs, and issuing direct deposits to employees. It can also manage payroll tax filings, including year-end tax forms, such as W-2s and 1099s.

What’s more, you can set up and run your payroll online, eliminating the need for manual calculations and paperwork. Various features, such as employee self-service and automatic reminders for important deadlines, will help your business stay compliant with payroll regulations. Our in-depth review of Wave Payroll provides more information about its payroll features.

Setting up payroll in Wave (Source: Wave)

Worker’s compensation insurance is also included in the payroll plan—this is offered through Next Insurance, which you can learn about through our Next Insurance review . And in addition to integrating with Wave Accounting, Wave Payroll integrates with popular accounting software like QuickBooks and Xero by using Zapier.

We consider Wave Payroll a cost-effective solution whether or not you live in one of the 14 states it offers tax filings and payments in (the full-service tax states are Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota, New York, North Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Washington, and Wisconsin). All of the data integrates with Wave Accounting, making it easy for you to generate reports. Its robust tax engine automatically calculates federal, state, and local taxes.

Visit Wave Payroll

Wave Advisors

Wave Advisors, which costs $149 per month, is a bookkeeping service offered by Wave Financial. It provides assisted bookkeeping services to small businesses, helping them with tasks such as managing accounts payable and receivable, reconciling bank accounts, and generating financial reports.

There are currently two main tiers of service: Bookkeeping and Bookkeeping + Payroll.

• Bookkeeping includes monthly bookkeeping services, reconciliation of accounts, and customized reports.
• Bookkeeping + Payroll has all of the services above plus payroll management, tax filing, and compliance support

Signing up for Wave Advisors (Source: Wave)

One of the benefits of using Wave Advisors is that it integrates with Wave’s accounting software, which allows businesses to have a complete view of their financials in one place. Additionally, Wave Advisors offers a team of dedicated bookkeeping professionals to help businesses manage their finances.

Visit Wave Advisors

Wave Invoicing

Wave Invoicing can be accessed from the Wave Accounting dashboard, under Sales and Payments. To invoice a customer, you simply have to click on the “Create an Invoice” button on the upper right corner.

The solution excels with its customization options, including the ability to select from different templates, add your logo, add a personalized message, and change colors. You can also set up recurring invoices and track sales tax collected and remitted by jurisdiction.

Invoicing in Wave (Source: Wave)

It is free, but it works especially well with Wave Payments, a paid service that lets customers click on a “Pay Now” link on their invoice so that you can accept quicker payments. You have the added benefit of being able to invoice on the go, as invoicing is available on the mobile app for both iOS and Android users. It also syncs automatically with Wave Accounting once you have downloaded the app and linked accounts.

Visit Wave Invoicing

Wave Payments

Wave Payments, which connects seamlessly with Wave Accounting, is a payment solution that allows you to add a “Pay Now” button on your invoices by enabling the online payments option. This gives customers another way to pay your invoices and allows you to potentially get paid faster.

Customers can pay your invoice with their bank account, credit card, or Apple Pay, and the funds will be deposited to your account within two business days. You can also set up recurring billing for repeat customers.

Accepting online payments in Wave (Source: Wave)

Both payments and processing fees are recorded automatically in Wave Accounting, and you can choose the payment method per invoice. You can also create a unique payment link with checkouts, where no invoice is needed.

If you run into any issues, you can access a live support agent via chat or email. The cost for Wave Payments is 1% per transaction with a $1 minimum fee for automated clearing house (ACH) payments, 2.9% plus 60 cents per transaction for credit cards, and 3.4% plus 60 cents per transaction for AMEX.

Visit Wave Payments

Wave Financial also offers a business banking account and debit card via Wave Money, which is completely free. It is currently only available to single-owner businesses in the United States, and each Wave bank account can be linked to one business.

Banking eligibility is based on factors, including business category and location, currency, and security. All of the Wave Money transactions are automatically accounted for in Wave Accounting, with a Wave Money asset account that is created in your chart of accounts.

Wave Money in Wave’s mobile app

You can access Wave Money on the Wave mobile app by clicking Banking on the bottom menu. Once you sign up, you can send money directly from the app and receive payments directly into your Wave checking account. You’ll also be issued a virtual card, which you can use right away both online and in-store.

There are no minimum daily balance requirements, account opening fees, monthly fees, transaction fees, and cash withdrawal fees on Wave’s surcharge-free ATM network. However, you can only view Wave Money information on your mobile device as it’s unavailable on desktop. See Wave on Google Play or Wave on App Store .

Are you interested in learning about other free options and how Wave compares? Our guide to the best free accounting software evaluates Wave and its competitors.

Spoiler alert: We chose Wave as the best overall for unlimited users.

How Wave Makes Money: Pricing & Business Model

Wave’s pricing.

Wave’s accounting, invoicing, and receipt scanning features are completely free. Wave Financial also offers the following services for an additional fee:

• Credit card payments: 2.9% plus 60 cents per transaction or 3.4% plus 60 cents per AMEX transaction
• Bank payments: 1% per transaction with a $1 minimum fee
• Wave Payroll: Fixed monthly cost of $40 for tax service states or $20 for self-service states plus an additional $6 per month per active employee or independent contractor.
• Wave Advisors: $149 per month for bookkeeping support
• Accounting and payroll coaching: $379 per coaching session and email support

Wave’s Business Model

Wave makes money by attracting businesses with Wave Accounting, which is free and offers good accounting, invoicing, bill pay, and receipt scanning features. Businesses that sign up for Wave Accounting are offered additional services that easily integrate with the free accounting software.

The additional services are reasonably priced, and there is no pressure or effort to force users to subscribe. Users who decline the paid services can continue to use Wave Accounting for free. Here’s a breakdown of Wave’s revenue-generating sources:

• Payment processing fees: Wave offers payment processing services that allow small business owners to accept credit card payments and bank transfers from customers. It charges a transaction fee for each payment processed through its platform, which typically is a percentage of the transaction value.
• Payroll processing: Wave also offers a payroll processing service, which lets small business owners manage their employees’ payroll and compliance needs. The company charges a fee for each payroll transaction processed through its platform.
• Partnerships and integrations: Wave also generates revenue from partnerships and integrations with other financial service providers. It partners with banks, financial institutions, and other software providers to offer its users additional financial services and integrations, which can result in referral fees or revenue-sharing agreements.

The History of Wave Financial, Inc.

Wave Financial, Inc. was founded in 2009 by Kirk Simpson and James Lochrie in Toronto, with the mission of helping small business owners manage their finances more efficiently. The company initially started as a free online accounting software but has since expanded its offerings to include payment processing, payroll, and invoicing tools.

In 2019, H&R Block, a leading tax preparation company, acquired Wave Financial for approximately $405 million. The acquisition was aimed at expanding H&R Block’s digital offerings and providing more services to small business owners. Despite the acquisition, Wave Financial continues to operate independently and serves more than 400,000 small business owners across the globe.

The company’s success has been driven by its user-friendly platform, affordable pricing, and commitment to providing high-quality financial management tools to small business owners. With the continued growth of the small business sector and the continued demand for digital financial services, Wave Financial is well-positioned to continue its growth trajectory and expand its services to serve a wider range of customers.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

How much does wave accounting cost.

The Wave Accounting platform is free to use for its core features such as accounting, invoicing, and receipt scanning. However, Wave Financial charges a fee for additional features, such as payroll and payment processing.

Is Wave Accounting easy to use?

Yes, Wave is known for its user-friendly interface and intuitive design. The software is designed to be simple to use, even if you don’t have an accounting background.

Does Wave Accounting have a mobile app?

Yes, Wave has a mobile app for Android and iOS devices, though there are very limited features. It offers invoicing, receipt scanning, and expense tracking, but you can’t set up and create projects, track time worked, categorize bank transactions, and view reports.

Does Wave Accounting provide customer support?

Yes, Wave provides customer support via a chatbot, email, and self-help library. Live chat is also available to customers using one of Wave’s paid services.

Bottom Line

Wave Financial is a comprehensive financial management solution that can help small business owners manage their finances easily and efficiently. With its user-friendly features, such as invoicing, payment processing services, assisted bookkeeping, payroll, and access to free business checking for single-owner businesses, it is an excellent choice for small business owners seeking an affordable solution for accounting, payroll, invoicing, and payment processing.

About the Author

Find Danielle On LinkedIn

Danielle Bauter

Danielle Bauter is a writer for the Accounting division of Fit Small Business. She has owned Check Yourself, a bookkeeping and payroll service that specializes in small business, for over twenty years. She holds a Bachelor's degree from UCLA and has served on the Board of the National Association of Women Business Owners. She also regularly writes about business for various consumer publications.

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API Reference

Api key management, rate limiting, error details, status codes, transaction type, the balance object, retrieve balance, request parameters, return attributes, the checkout session object, create a checkout session, retrieve a checkout, retrieve a checkout by transaction id, refund a checkout, expire a checkout, checkout session errors, payment errors.

Wave Business APIs provide a programmatic means to work with your Wave business account. Using these REST APIs, you can collect money and check the balance on your wallet. To use these APIs, you need a Wave business account.

For an overview and quick start instructions, see our Getting Started with the Wave Checkout API guide.

All the endpoint paths referenced in the API document are relative to a base URL, https://api.wave.com .

Authentication

Wave APIs use HTTP bearer authentication with API keys. Each request must contain an authorization header specifying the bearer scheme with the api key, for example Authorization: Bearer wave_sn_prod_YhUNb9d...i4bA6 (note that the actual key is much longer but for documentation purposes most of the characters have been replaced by an ellipses).

Wave will assign an API key to identify your account. Since API keys can be used to perform any API request, including those which move money and access sensitive information, you must take care to keep your key secret. Your key should not be shared, stored anywhere but your own servers, or used from client-side code.

You manage your API keys through the developer's section in the Wave Business Portal . You can create, view, and revoke keys, and define which specific APIs each key has access to.

When you create a new API key, you will only see the full key once. Make sure you copy it without missing any characters, since it will be masked afterwards for security reasons. Wave doesn't know your full key, but if you contact API support we can identify them by the last 4 letters that you see displayed in the business portal.

Wave APIs are rate limited to prevent abuse that would degrade performance for all users. If you send many requests in a short period of time, you may receive 429 error responses.

Here's an example of how you can construct a POST request with Authorization and Content-Type headers and JSON data:

Wave API requests use HTTP bearer authorization and, for those with a body, JSON format and UTF-8 encoding. All requests should be sent with HTTPS.

Wave API requests use the HTTP GET or POST methods.

The GET method is used to retrieve resources. GET requests are idempotent and will not change any data on the server.

The POST method is used to create new resources.

For authentication, the Authorization header must be included in the request. The value consists of the auth scheme, Bearer followed by the api key:

Authorization: Bearer <API key>

For requests which include a body, the Content-Type header must specify that the body is JSON:

Content-Type: application/json

Some Wave API requests include data. That data must be in JSON format and use UTF-8 encoding.

Wave API responses use HTTP status codes to indicate whether a request has been completed successfully. 2xx codes indicate that the request was successful received, understood and accepted. 4xx codes signal a problem with the request from the client and 5xx codes indicate a problem on the server end. See Errors for more information about error responses.

For a response to a successful API request, the message body contains information provided by the server in JSON format (using UTF-8 encoding).

For a response to an unsuccessful request, the message body includes details about the error in JSON format (using UTF-8 encoding). Minimally, this includes a short error code and a longer user-readable message describing the reason for the failure.

When an API request cannot be completed successfully, the response provides information about the failure in the message body and in the HTTP status code.

Here's what the message body of a response to an invalid request might look like:

In response to unsuccessful requests, Wave provides details about the error in the message body. This includes, minimally, a short code and longer user-readable message describing the error. For validation errors, Wave may also provide details of what failed including the field that failed validation and the problem with it.

The general reason for the failure is reflected in the HTTP response status code. 4xx codes signal a problem with the request from the client and 5xx codes indicate a problem on the server end. Specific details of the problem are provided in the message body.

Some of the status codes we return are listed below.

Data formats

Some of the parameters in Wave API requests or attributes in API objects follow specific data formats.

All amounts are represented as strings. When the amount includes decimal places, the separator is a period ( . ). The following rules apply to valid amounts:

• Include between zero and two decimal places. (See Currency for the maximum number of allowed decimal places for each currency.)
• No leading zeroes where the value is one or greater.
• One leading zero where the value is less than one.
• May include trailing zeroes.
• Must be positive for requests. May be zero or negative in object attributes.

Standard ISO 4217 three-letter codes in upper case are used to specify currency. The code for the West African Franc is XOF . Decimal places are not allowed for XOF currency amounts.

Timestamp values follow the ISO 8601 standard. Timestamps that we provide in API objects will be of the form YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ssZ where the Z indicates the UTC time zone.

Visit the Webhooks documentation

Balance API

ENDPOINTS: GET /v1/balance

The Balance API provides a programmatic means to retrieve the balance on your wallet.

BALANCE OBJECT

The Balance object represents the amount of money in a Wave wallet.

amount string Balance amount.

currency currency Three-letter ISO 4217 currency code.

GET /v1/balance

Retrieves the current balance of the account associated with the API key used to make the request.

No parameters.

Returns a balance object for the account associated with the API key used to make the request.

Retrieve your transactions

GET /v1/transactions

Example response

Returns a list of transactions of your account for a given day. Uses pagination if the number of transactions exceeds 1000 entries. The transactions are ordered from older to newer.

URL parameters are passed in the form of https://api.wave.com/v1/transactions?date=value1&after=value2 .

Example page info object

If the number of items of an API request is too many to return in a single request, then the results are paginated. The cutoff amount depends on the API, for example the Balance API transactions export is limited to 1000 transactions.

You can simply iterate through the pages by calling https://api.wave.com/v1/<endpoint>?after=<end_cursor> .

Checkout API

ENDPOINTS: POST /v1/checkout/sessions GET /v1/checkout/sessions/:id GET /v1/checkout/sessions GET /v1/checkout/sessions/search POST /v1/checkout/sessions/:id/expire POST /v1/checkout/sessions/:id/refund

The Checkout API provides a programmatic means to allow you to prompt users from a website or a mobile app to send payments.

CHECKOUT SESSION OBJECT

The Checkout Session object contains details about the requested payment and its status.

id string Unique identifier for the Checkout Session object. Up to 20 characters.

amount string Total amount to collect from the customer (gross of fees).

checkout_status enum The status of the checkout, one of open , complete , or expired .

client_reference string (optional) A unique string which can be used to correlate the checkout session and subsequent payment with your system. You provide this value in the request to create a checkout session.

currency string Three-letter ISO 4217 currency code.

error_url string The URL the customer will be directed to if an error occurs on a payment attempt.

last_payment_error hash (optional) The reason for the last failed payment attempt. Can only be populated when the payment_status is processing or cancelled . Contains the following fields:

code string A short string indicated the error code.

message string A human-readable description of the error.

business_name string The name of the business as it will be shown to the customer.

payment_status enum The status of the associated payment, one of processing , cancelled , or succeeded .

aggregated_merchant_id : string (optional) The aggregated merchant id used for this checkout transaction.

restrict_payer_mobile : string (optional) This checkout session can only be paid by the Wave account with this number. Note: this field was previously called enforce_payer_mobile , so both are currently returned.

success_url string The URL the customer will be directed to if the payment succeeds.

transaction_id string A Wave transaction ID that is also visible in the user's app.

wave_launch_url string A URL which will open the Wave app to initiate the checkout or give instructions for completing the checkout if Wave is not installed on the device.

when_completed ISO 8601 timestamp UTC time at which the checkout session either succeeded or expired. Not populated when the checkout_status is open .

when_created ISO 8601 timestamp UTC time that the checkout session was created.

when_expires ISO 8601 timestamp UTC time at which the checkout session will expire. By default, checkout sessions expire 30 minutes after their creation. After expiration, payments will not be accepted for the checkout session.

POST /v1/checkout/sessions

Creates a Checkout Session object.

aggregated_merchant_id string (required for Aggregators) An aggregated merchant ID to use when making this transaction. This is only available to specific businesses and will return an error if you provide it but don't have permission. If you would like to use this feature, please contact your Wave support representative.

client_reference string (optional, up to 255 characters) A unique string that you provide which can be used to correlate the checkout in your system.

restrict_payer_mobile string (optional) If you provide this, then the checkout session can only be paid by the Wave account with the specified mobile number. This is a feature that can help you protect your users from scams. Phone numbers follow the E.164 standard. They must include a country code preceded by +. Note: this field was previously called enforce_payer_mobile . This field is also still accepted for compatibility reasons, but the new name is preferred.

error_url string The URL the customer will be directed to if an error occurs on a payment attempt. You must provide a fully-qualified address using https as the scheme. You may include any information you need in the path itself or in query parameters.

override_business_name string (optional, up to 255 characters) DEPRECATED If Wave has supplied you an aggregated_merchant_id , please use that instead. This field will eventually be removed in favor of an aggregated_merchant_id .

In some cases, you may want to show the customer a different business name than is on your Wave account. This is only available to specific businesses and will return an error if you provide it but don't have permission. If you would like to use this feature, please contact your Wave support representative.

success_url string The URL the customer will be directed to if the payment succeeds. You must provide a fully-qualified address using https as the scheme. You may include any information you need in the path itself or in query parameters.

Returns a Checkout Session object.

GET /v1/checkout/sessions/:id

Retrieves a Checkout Session object.

Returns a Checkout Session object if a valid identifier was provided. Returns an checkout session error otherwise.

GET /v1/checkout/sessions

Search for checkouts

Retrieves a list of Checkout Session objects that match the search criteria.

GET /v1/checkout/sessions/search

POST /v1/checkout/sessions/:id/refund

Refunds the user payment associated with a Checkout Session.

Returns an empty body and an HTTP 200 Success code when the payment is refunded, and an error otherwise. If the Checkout Session doesn't exists this returns an HTTP 404 Not Found error.

If you try to refund a checkout twice, no additional transaction will be created, but this endpoint will simply return HTTP 200 Success again.

All normal transaction restrictions apply: if the recipient has reached their monthly limit or their account is for any reason blocked then the corresponding error is returned as well.

POST /v1/checkout/sessions/:id/expire

Expires an open Checkout Session, preventing it from being completed by any user.

Returns an empty body and an HTTP 200 Success code when successfully expiring the session. Can also return the following errors:

• 404 Not Found : If no Checkout Session is found with the provided id
• 403 Forbidden : If your API key has no permission for this endpoint
• 409 Conflict : If the Checkout Session was already completed or expired

Checkout API errors

A couple of things can go wrong when attempting to create a checkout session, or when a user tries to pay an existing session. The following is the list of errors that can occur when using this API.

This is in addition to the general HTTP code that can be returned as described in the errors section.

These errors will be delivered as part of the webhook that notifies your system of a failed checkout payment attempt. They basically answer why the payment of the user failed. The code will be under the last_payment_error field of the webhook body.

Added aggregated_merchant_id details to the Checkout API.

The Checkout API now validates decimal places following the rules described in the Amount section.

Adds override_business_name details to Checkout API

Initial release of Checkout and Balance APIs.

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The Vescore Wave – a superior business-cycle model

The Vescore Wave is our proprietary business-cycle model. We use it to identify the current state of the business cycle for 50 countries, based on a big-data approach.

From our standpoint, timely anticipation of the transition between business cycle states is key for the success of tactical asset allocation decisions. The models we developed deliver information about the current state (state model) and the most probable future state (transition model). Our Vescore Wave has a strong track record in anticipating business-cycle developments usually ahead of standard economic leading indicators. Therefore, we believe it is relevant for investors and policy makers alike.

Why should investors care about the business cycle?

It is not easy to dispel skepticism among those investors who doubt that economic forecasts are useful for investment decisions. Are they discouraged by the fact that downward revisions often come too late because the accuracy of predictions tends to wane in the run-up to economic downturns or recessions 1 ? Or do they refrain from relying on economic forecasts because these usually depend on assumptions of many unknown parameters?

In this respect, we have good news: There is no need for complex economic forecasts to make fruitful investment decisions. In our view, the key for successful asset allocation is deriving the right information about business-cycle states rather than making accurate GDP forecasts. We know from the past that risky assets tend to deliver positive returns in the upturn, whilst their performance is underwhelming in the downturn 2 . Hence knowing the state of the business cycle is sufficient to make a big difference in the asset allocation (see figure 1). This is why, by means of our Vescore Wave, we aim to derive information about the current business-cycle state and the most likely transition path ahead (transition probabilities).

State model

The state model signals in which of the four states of the business cycle – slowdown, contraction, recovery, or expansion (shown in figure 1) – we are. Model output is available on country, regional, and global level. We apply a big-data approach to derive information about the state. On the highest level of aggregation – the Global Wave – we currently process more than 750 economic-data time series, dating back to the 1990s where available, to compute the current business-cycle state of the global economy. Computation of the state starts on a country level, considering 50 countries. The algorithm derives the necessary information from 20 to 25 economic-data time series. Data may slightly vary from country to country, depending on data availability and individual economic structures. On a country level, we weight the indicators equally with the aim to get insight into the breadth of economic developments. All indicators used are grouped in categories (see figure 2; for a detailed overview of countries and indicators covered see figure 8).

The state model’s output shows the percentage share of those indicators that lie above trend 3 . Regional and global aggregates are weighted according to the size of each country’s nominal GDP (in USD). The Vescore Wave defines that we are at the threshold between the upper and lower half of the business cycle when 50% of the indicators lie above trend. As shown in figure 3, we can derive from a falling indicator that we are in an economic downturn (left half in figure 1) and from a rising indicator that we are in an upturn (right half in figure 1).

How astute is our state model?

Figure 4 shows the behavior of different leading indicators around the economic trough for the US economy, and figure 5 summarizes the results for the US economy. On average over the past 50 years, both the PMI and OECD indicator anticipated the economic trough two to three months in advance, whilst our Vescore Wave’s state model beat them by anticipating the trough more than one month earlier than they did. Therefore, our state model has the potential to harvest higher equity market gains when it is used for tactical asset allocation.

What drives investors into risky assets well ahead of the economic trough?

The answer is simple: their belief that the worst is over and things are improving. This makes the equity market another early forecaster of turning points in the business cycle (see figure 5), and corroborates how important it is to know when the cycle is in transition from one to another state in order to make the right investment decisions.

Transition model

Our transition model derives information by evaluating the effectiveness of policy stimulus measures. Its output are transition probabilities indicating how likely it is that the economy will move into a different business cycle state in the month to come. There are different ways of measuring policy stimulus. Central bank stimulus, for example, can be assessed directly at the source via changes in the central banks’ policy rates or balance sheets, or indirectly via financial market indicators. None of these indicators by itself can provide a complete picture, but if the policy measures are credible, and thus effective, they are likely to impact the money supply of the economy. As policy shifts need time until they trickle through to the economy, economic data tends to reflect policy stimulus much later than money supply data. Therefore, we are using the information from our preferred liquidity indicator, real M1, which has a good track record in anticipating shifts between business cycle states 4 (see figure 6). This further improves our model’s signaling of transitions between business cycle states.

The transition model capitalizes on the lag between the policy stimulus, measured by real M1, and the current state of the business cycle. We use our liquidity indicator to assess how probable it is that the economy will remain in the current state or enter one of the three other states. Figure 7 shows the state probabilities calculated in each month for the month to come. In the current expansion state, our transition model predicts a high probability (black bar) that we will remain in expansion next month. On average over the past 20 years, our transition model was able to anticipate turning points in the business cycle one month earlier than our state model with an accuracy of 65%.

We are convinced that knowing the current business-cycle state and the transition probabilities between the states gives an advantage for tactical asset allocation decisions and thus matters to investors. In this respect, our Vescore Wave can serve well because, on average over the long-term past, it has proven superior to standard private- and public-sector leading indicators in anticipating turning points in the business cycle.

1. Source: “GDP predictions are reliable only in the short term“ , The Economist, 15 December 2018 2. We use the OECD methodology to define the business-cycle state since 1960 for 24 countries. The bars in figure 1 reflect the monthly median of the equity market performance of all these countries by business-cycle state. Overall, the results are based on the analysis of 6226 months of data. For further details on the OECD business cycle methodology, see "Handbook of Constructing Composite Indicators" , OECD, 2008. 3. The results for the state are even available on a more granular level. State information is available for soft and hard economic-data time series. The latter can be broken down further (see figure 2). 4. We prefer M1 to other money aggregates like M2 or M3 as it only includes money supply components that easily can be used for economic transactions, namely currency in circulation and sight deposits. Time deposits and savings deposits with a notice period are not included. Deflating the money supply is necessary as we are trying to anticipate real economic shifts. The relatively long lead of up to twelve months makes economic sense because time passes between individuals deciding to buy discretionary goods and therefore moving deposits to liquid accounts, the ordering of the goods, and their production.

Important Information:

The views herein are those of Vontobel and may change at any time and without notice. Information and opinions presented have been obtained or derived from sources believed to be reliable and current; however, Vontobel cannot guarantee the sources’ accuracy or completeness. Such information is not intended to predict actual results and no assurances are given with respect thereto. Some of the information provided may contain projections or other forward-looking statements regarding future events or future financial performance. There is no guarantee that any such future events will come to pass and actual events or results may differ materially. Past performance is not an indication of future results. Neither asset allocation nor diversification assure a profit or protect against loss in declining markets.

About the author

Sven Schubert

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Plateformes : le business model qui domine le monde

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Présentation du livre

Google, Apple, Amazon, Facebook, Microsoft, Uber… Comment expliquer la prédominance mondiale de ces puissantes plateformes, leur quasi-monopole sur leurs marchés, leur croissance insolente  ?   Véritable sujet de société, les plateformes numériques exercent une influence extraordinaire sur nos vies personnelle, professionnelle et politique. Ce business model jusqu’à présent réservé aux entreprises les plus valorisées de la planète touche désormais tous les secteurs et de nouvelles plateformes ne cessent d’être créées. Alors, quelles stratégies adopter  pour lancer une plateforme à succès ?   Très exhaustif, émaillé d’exemples et de cas d’entreprises qui le rendent accessible, ce livre est le fruit de près de trente ans de recherches, d’idées et d’expérience. Il deviendra un réel atout pour comprendre l’un des plus importants phénomènes de notre temps et concevoir de futures entreprises numériques innovantes et plus équitables.   «  Que vous soyez un utilisateur désireux de comprendre la logique économique des plateformes, un chef d'entreprise désireux de maîtriser leurs stratégies ou un régulateur désireux de s'informer sur leur gouvernance, ce livre offre des réponses approfondies, convaincantes et actualisées par trois experts qui ont commencé à analyser les plateformes bien avant que le terme ne devienne connu. Ce traité est un véritable trésor.  » Bengt Holmström, Prix Nobel d’économie 2016

Sommaire de l'ouvrage

Chapitre 1 – L’esprit «  plateforme  » Introduction

Chapitre 2 –  Winner-takes-all-or-most Au-delà des effets de réseau

Chapitre 3 – Stratégie et business models Innovation, transactions, hybride

Chapitre 4 – Les erreurs classiques Pricing , méfiance,  timing  et arrogance

Chapitre 5 – Vétérans et nouvelles pirouettes Construire, acquérir ou se rallier à une plateforme

Chapitre 6 – Une arme à double tranchant Exploiter le pouvoir des plateformes sans en abuser

Chapitre 7 – En avant… Les plateformes de demain

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• Actualité Tout savoir sur le business model des plateformes
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EWP is currently in collaboration processes and is seeking collaborations with conventional and green energy companies, electric utilities, energy ministries, marinas and ports, project developers, institutes, manufacturers, engineering companies, private and public funds, and investors.

Global organizations that are interested in researching, harnessing or investing in wave energy with the purpose of meeting the rising global demand for clean, renewable, and affordable electricity are also being considered.

Eco Wave Power is the sole global inventor, owner, and developer of the unique EWP wave energy device. Due to its 100% control and ownership of the EWP technology, Eco Wave Power can cooperate through a variety of options. We have the capability to support different project structures such as: BOO (Build, Own, Operate), BOT (Build, Operate, Transfer), BOOT (Build, Own, Operate, Transfer), BLT (Build, lease, transfer), and BLOT projects (Build, lease, operate, transfer).

EWP is interested in selling its generated electricity in utility-scale size, grid-connected, multi-unit arrays to supply electricity for network connection and also distributed, smaller-scale devices to supply designated and off-grid users.

Eco Wave Power provides its clients and partners with a convenient A to Z package of services: starting with undertaking the feasibility studies to support our clients and partners in the validation process of wave energy projects in different geographic locations, and continuing with services of construction, installation, operation, and maintenance services to support our projects.

Our core focus is on three potential main revenue streams:

However, as the wave energy sector is at an early development phase, the company will continuously adapt and evolve its positioning in the value chain in line with industry maturity.

As a result, we are also able to collaborate through: Joint Ventures (JV) companies, technology exclusive and non-exclusive licensing agreements, Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) and Operation and Maintenance agreements (O&M).

Introducing Copilot+ PCs

May 20, 2024 | Yusuf Mehdi - Executive Vice President, Consumer Chief Marketing Officer

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An on-demand recording of our May 20 event is available .

Today, at a special event on our new Microsoft campus, we introduced the world to a new category of Windows PCs designed for AI, Copilot+ PCs.    

Copilot+ PCs are the fastest, most intelligent Windows PCs ever built. With powerful new silicon capable of an incredible 40+ TOPS (trillion operations per second), all – day battery life and access to the most advanced AI models, Copilot+ PCs will enable you to do things you can’t on any other PC. Easily find and remember what you have seen in your PC with Recall, generate and refine AI images in near real-time directly on the device using Cocreator, and bridge language barriers with Live Captions, translating audio from 40+ languages into English .  

These experiences come to life on a set of thin, light and beautiful devices from Microsoft Surface and our OEM partners Acer, ASUS, Dell, HP, Lenovo and Samsung, with pre-orders beginning today and availability starting on June 18. Starting at $999, Copilot+ PCs offer incredible value.  

This first wave of Copilot+ PCs is just the beginning. Over the past year, we have seen an incredible pace of innovation of AI in the cloud with Copilot allowing us to do things that we never dreamed possible. Now, we begin a new chapter with AI innovation on the device. We have completely reimagined the entirety of the PC – from silicon to the operating system, the application layer to the cloud – with AI at the center, marking the most significant change to the Window platform in decades.   

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The fastest, most secure Windows PCs ever built  

We introduced an all-new system architecture to bring the power of the CPU, GPU, and now a new high performance Neural Processing Unit (NPU) together. Connected to and enhanced by the large language models (LLMs) running in our Azure Cloud in concert with small language models (SLMs), Copilot+ PCs can now achieve a level of performance never seen before. They are up to 20x more powerful [1] and up to 100x as efficient [2] for running AI workloads and deliver industry-leading AI acceleration. They outperform Apple’s MacBook Air 15” by up to 58% in sustained multithreaded performance [3] , all while delivering all-day battery life.  With incredible efficiency, Copilot+ PCs can deliver up to 22 hours of local video playback or 15 hours of web browsing on a single charge. [4] That is up to 20% more battery in local video playback than the MacBook Air 15”. [5]

Windows now has the best implementation of apps on the fastest chip, starting with Qualcomm. We now offer more native Arm64 experiences than ever before, including our fastest implementation of Microsoft 365 apps like Teams, PowerPoint, Outlook, Word, Excel, OneDrive and OneNote. Chrome, Spotify, Zoom, WhatsApp, Blender, Affinity Suite, DaVinci Resolve and many more now run​ natively on Arm to give you great performance with additional apps, like Slack, releasing later this year. In fact, 87% of the total app minutes people spend in apps today have native Arm versions. [6] With a powerful new emulator, Prism, your apps run great, whether native or emulated.

Every Copilot+ PC comes secured out of the box. The Microsoft Pluton Security processor will be enabled by default on all Copilot+ PCs and we have introduced a number of new features, updates and defaults to Windows 11 that make it easy for users to stay secure. And, we’ve built in personalized privacy controls to help you protect what’s important to you. You can read more about how we are making Windows more secure here .

Entirely new, powerful AI experiences   

Copilot+ PCs leverage powerful processors and multiple state-of-the-art AI models, including several of Microsoft’s world-class SLMs, to unlock a new set of experiences you can run locally, directly on the device. This removes previous limitations on things like latency, cost and even privacy to help you be more productive, creative and communicate more effectively.  

Recall instantly  

We set out to solve one of the most frustrating problems we encounter daily – finding something we know we have seen before on our PC. Today, we must remember what file folder it was stored in, what website it was on, or scroll through hundreds of emails trying to find it.   

Now with Recall, you can access virtually what you have seen or done on your PC in a way that feels like having photographic memory. Copilot+ PCs organize information like we do – based on relationships and associations unique to each of our individual experiences. This helps you remember things you may have forgotten so you can find what you’re looking for quickly and intuitively by simply using the cues you remember. [7]

You can scroll across time to find the content you need in your timeline across any application, website, document, or more. Interact intuitively using snapshots with screenray to help you take the next step using suggested actions based on object recognition. And get back to where you were, whether to a specific email in Outlook or the right chat in Teams.

Recall leverages your personal semantic index, built and stored entirely on your device. Your snapshots are yours; they stay locally on your PC. You can delete individual snapshots, adjust and delete ranges of time in Settings, or pause at any point right from the icon in the System Tray on your Taskbar. You can also filter apps and websites from ever being saved. You are always in control with privacy you can trust.

Cocreate with AI-powered image creation and editing, built into Windows

Since the launch of Image Creator, almost 10 billion images have been generated, helping more people bring their ideas to life easily by using natural language to describe what they want to create. Yet, today’s cloud offerings may limit the number of images you can create, keep you waiting while the artwork processes or even present privacy concerns. By using the Neural Processing Units (NPUs) and powerful local small language models, we are bringing innovative new experiences to your favorite creative applications like Paint and Photos.

Combine your ink strokes with text prompts to generate new images in nearly real time with Cocreator. As you iterate, so does the artwork, helping you more easily refine, edit and evolve your ideas. Powerful diffusion-based algorithms optimize for the highest quality output over minimum steps to make it feel like you are creating alongside AI. Use the creativity slider to choose from a range of artwork from more literal to more expressive. Once you select your artwork, you can continue iterating on top of it, helping you express your ideas, regardless of your creative skills.

Take photo editing and image creation to the next level. With Restyle Image, you can reimagine your personal photos with a new style combining image generation and photo editing in Photos. Use a pre-set style like Cyberpunk or Claymation to change the background, foreground or full picture to create an entirely new image. Or jumpstart your next creative project and get visual inspiration with Image Creator in Photos. On Copilot+ PCs you can generate endless images for free, fast, with the ability to fine tune images to your liking and to save your favorites to collections.

Innovative AI experiences from the creative apps you love

We are also partnering with some of the biggest and most-loved applications on the planet to leverage the power of the NPU to deliver new innovative AI experiences.

Together with Adobe, we are thrilled to announce Adobe’s flagship apps are coming to Copilot+ PCs, including Photoshop, Lightroom and Express – available today. Illustrator, Premiere Pro and more are coming this summer. And we’re continuing to partner to optimize AI in these apps for the NPU. For Adobe Creative Cloud customers, they will benefit from the full performance advantages of Copilot+ PCs to express their creativity faster than ever before.

DaVinci Resolve Studio    

Effortlessly apply visual effects to objects and people using NPU-accelerated Magic Mask in DaVinci Resolve Studio.  

Remove the background from any video clip in a snap using Auto Cutout running on the NPU in CapCut.  

Stay in your flow with faster, more responsive adaptive input controls, like head movement or facial expressions via the new NPU-powered camera pipeline in Cephable.  

LiquidText  

Make quicker and smarter annotations to documents, using AI features that run entirely on-device via NPU, so data stays private in LiquidText. 

Have fun breaking down and remixing any music track, with a new, higher-quality version of NeuralMix™ that’s exclusive to NPU in Algoriddim’s djay Pro.  

Connect and communicate effortlessly with live captions  

In an increasingly connected and global world, Windows wants to bring people closer together. Whether catching up on your favorite podcast from a different country, or watching your favorite international sports team, or even collaborating with friends and colleagues across the world, we want to make more content accessible to more people.   

Live Captions now has live translations and will turn any audio that passes through your PC into a single, English-language caption experience, in real time on your screen across all your apps consistently. You can translate any live or pre-recorded audio in any app or video platform from over 40 languages into English subtitles instantly, automatically and even while you’re offline. Powered by the NPU and available across all Copilot+ PCs, now you can have confidence your words are understood as intended.   

New and enhanced Windows Studio Effects  

Look and sound your best automatically with easily accessible controls at your fingertips in Quick Settings. Portrait light automatically adjusts the image to improve your perceived illumination in a dark environment or brighten the foreground pixels when in a low-light environment. Three new creative filters (illustrated, animated or watercolor) add an artistic flare. Eye contact teleprompter helps you maintain eye contact while reading your screen. New improvements to voice focus and portrait blur help ensure you’re always in focus.   

Copilot, your everyday AI companion

Every Copilot+ PC comes with your personal powerful AI agent that is just a single tap away on keyboards with the new Copilot key. [8] Copilot will now have the full application experience customers have been asking for in a streamlined, simple yet powerful and personal design. Copilot puts the most advanced AI models at your fingertips. In the coming weeks, get access to the latest models including GPT-4o from our partners at OpenAI, so you can have voice conversations that feel more natural.

Advancing AI responsibly

At Microsoft, we have a company-wide commitment to develop ethical, safe and secure AI. Our responsible AI principles guided the development of these new experiences, and all AI features are aligned with our standards. Learn more here .

New Copilot+ PCs from Microsoft Surface and our partners

We have worked with each of the top OEMs — Acer, ASUS, Dell, HP, Lenovo, Samsung — and of course Surface, to bring exciting new Copilot+ PCs that will begin to launch on June 18. Starting at $999, these devices are up to $200 less than similar spec’d devices [9] .

Surface plays a key role in the Windows ecosystem, as we design software and hardware together to deliver innovative designs and meaningful experiences to our customers and fans. We are introducing the first-ever Copilot+ PCs from Surface: The all-new Surface Pro and Surface Laptop.

The new Surface Laptop is a powerhouse in an updated, modern laptop design with razor-thin bezels, a brilliant touchscreen display, AI-enhanced camera, premium audio, and now with a haptic touchpad.

Choose between a 13.8” and 15” display and four stunning colors. Enjoy up to 22 hours of local video playback on Surface Laptop 15” or up to 20 hours on Surface Laptop13.8” on top of incredible performance and all-new AI experiences.

The new Surface Pro is the most flexible 2-in-1 laptop, now reimagined with more speed and battery life to power all-new AI experiences. It introduces a new, optional OLED with HDR display, and ultrawide field of view camera perfect for Windows Studio Effects. The new Surface Pro Flex Keyboard is the first 2-in-1 keyboard designed to be used both attached or detached. It delivers enhanced stability, with Surface Slim Pen storage and charging integrated seamlessly, as well as a quiet, haptic touchpad. Learn more here.

New Copilot+ PCs from the biggest brands available starting June 18:

• Acer : Acer’s Swift 14 AI 2.5K touchscreen enables you to draw and edit your vision with greater accuracy and with color-accurate imagery. Launch and discover AI-enhanced features, like Acer PurifiedVoice 2.0 and Purified View, with a touch of the dedicated AcerSense button.
• ASUS : The ASUS Vivobook S 15 is a powerful device that brings AI experiences to life with its Snapdragon X Elite Platform and built-in Qualcomm® AI. It boasts 40+ NPU TOPS, a dual-fan cooling system, and up to 1 TB of storage. Next-gen AI enhancements include Windows Studio effects v2 and ASUS AiSense camera, with presence-detection capabilities for Adaptive Dimming and Lock. Built for portability, it has an ultra-slim and light all-metal design, a high-capacity battery, and premium styling with a single-zone RGB backlit keyboard.
• Dell : Dell is launching five new Copilot+ PCs, including the XPS 13, Inspiron 14 Plus, Inspiron 14, Latitude 7455, and Latitude 5455, offering a range of consumer and commercial options that deliver groundbreaking battery life and unique AI experiences. The XPS 13 is powered by Snapdragon X Elite processors and features a premium, futuristic design, while the Latitude 7455 boasts a stunning QHD+ display and quad speakers with AI noise reduction. The Inspiron14 and Inspiron 14 Plus feature a Snapdragon X Plus 1and are crafted with lightweight, low carbon aluminum and are energy efficient with EPEAT Gold rating.
• HP : HP’s OmniBook X AI PC and HP EliteBook Ultra G1q AI PC with Snapdragon X Elite are slim and sleek designs, delivering advanced performance and mobility for a more personalized computing experience. Features include long-lasting battery life and AI-powered productivity tools, such as real-time transcription and meeting summaries. A 5MP camera with automatic framing and eye focus is supported by Poly Studio’s crystal-clear audio for enhanced virtual interactions.
• Lenovo : Lenovo is launching two AI PCs: one built for consumers, Yoga Slim 7x, and one for commercial, ThinkPad T14s Gen 6. The Yoga Slim 7x brings efficiency for creatives, featuring a 14.5” touchscreen with 3K Dolby Vision and optimized power for 3D rendering and video editing. The T14s Gen 6 brings enterprise-level experiences and AI performance to your work tasks, with features including a webcam privacy shutter, Wi-Fi 7 connectivity and up to 64GB RAM.
• Samsung : Samsung’s new Galaxy Book4 Edge is ultra-thin and light, with a 3K resolution 2x AMOLED display and Wi-Fi 7 connectivity. It has a long-lasting battery that provides up to 22 hours of video playback, making it perfect for work or entertainment on the go.

Learn more about new Copilot+ PCs and pre-order today at Microsoft.com and from major PC manufacturers, as well as other leading global retailers.

Start testing for commercial deployment today

Copilot+ PCs offer businesses the most performant Windows 11 devices with unique AI capabilities to unlock productivity, improve collaboration and drive efficiency. As a Windows PC, businesses can deploy and manage a Copilot+ PC with the same tools and processes used today including IT controls for new features and AppAssure support. We recommend IT admins begin testing and readying for deployment to start empowering your workforce with access to powerful AI features on these high-performance devices. You can read more about our commercial experiences here .

AI innovation across the Windows ecosystem  

Like we’ve always done with Windows, we have built a platform for our ecosystem partners to build on.  

The first Copilot+ PCs will launch with both the Snapdragon® X Elite and Snapdragon® X Plus processors and feature leading performance per watt thanks to the custom Qualcomm Oryon™ CPU, which delivers unrivaled performance and battery efficiency. Snapdragon X Series delivers 45 NPU TOPS all-in-one system on a chip (SoC). The premium integrated Qualcomm® Adreno ™ GPU delivers stunning graphics for immersive entertainment. We look forward to expanding  through deep partnerships with Intel and AMD, starting with Lunar Lake and Strix. We will bring new Copilot+ PC experiences at a later date. In the future we expect to see devices with this silicon paired with powerful graphics cards like NVIDIA GeForce RTX and AMD Radeon, bringing Copilot+ PC experiences to reach even broader audiences like advanced gamers and creators.   

We are at an inflection point where the PC will accelerate AI innovation. We believe the richest AI experiences will only be possible when the cloud and device work together in concert. Together with our partners, we’re setting the frame for the next decade of Windows innovation.  

[1] Based on snapshot of aggregated, non-gaming app usage data as of April 2024 for iGPU-based laptops and 2-in-1 devices running Windows 10 and Windows 11 in US, UK, CA, FR, AU, DE, JP.

[2] Tested April 2024 using Phi SLM workload running 512-token prompt processing in a loop with default settings comparing pre-release Copilot+ PC builds with Snapdragon Elite X 12 Core and Snapdragon X Plus 10 core configurations (QNN build) to Windows 11 PC with NVIDIA 4080 GPU configuration (CUDA build).

[3] Tested May 2024 using Cinebench 2024 Multi-Core benchmark comparing Copilot+ PCs with Snapdragon X Elite 12 core and Snapdragon X Plus 10 core configurations to MacBook Air 15” with M3 8 core CPU / 10 Core GPU configuration. Performance will vary significantly between device configuration and usage.

[4] *Battery life varies significantly by device and with settings, usage and other factors. See aka.ms/cpclaims*

[5] *Battery life varies significantly based on device configuration, usage, network and feature configuration, signal strength, settings and other factors. Testing conducted May 2024 using the prelease Windows ADK full screen local video playback assessment under standard testing conditions, with the device connected to Wi-Fi and screen brightness set to 150 nits, comparing Copilot+ PCs with Snapdragon X Elite 12 core and Snapdragon X Plus 10 core configurations running Windows Version 26097.5003 (24H2) to MacBook Air 15” M3 8-Core CPU/ 10 Core GPU running macOS 14.4 with similar device configurations and testing scenario.

[6] Based on snapshot of aggregated, non-gaming app usage data as of April 2024 for iGPU-based laptops and 2-in-1 devices running Windows 10 and Windows 11 in US, UK, CA, FR, AU, DE, JP.

[7] Recall is optimized for select languages (English, Chinese (simplified), French, German, Japanese, and Spanish.) Content-based and storage limitations apply. Learn more here .

[8] Copilot key functionality may vary. See aka.ms/keysupport

[9] Based on MSRPs; actual savings may vary

Tags: AI , Copilot+ PC

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Les trois business models des plates-formes de livraison

Professeur de logistique, Neoma Business School

Maître de Conférences hdr, Université Clermont Auvergne (UCA)

Disclosure statement

The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

Université Clermont Auvergne and Neoma Business School provide funding as members of The Conversation FR.

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Depuis quelques années, une nouvelle forme de livraison au consommateur s’est développée dans les centres urbains : la crowd-delivery, ou « livraison par la foule ». Il s’agit d’une pratique qui entre dans le champ des initiatives issues du « crowd-sourcing » (« approvisionnement par la foule »). La crowd-delivery consiste par définition à recourir à une foule de particuliers pour prendre en charge la livraison finale vers les consommateurs.

Proposées dans les centres urbains par de nombreuses start-up, ces initiatives sont développées pour la distribution de repas (ex : Deliveroo), pour des produits issus de la grande distribution alimentaire (ex : Instacart), ou encore des produits de consommation au sens large (ex : Postmates).

De tels dispositifs s’appuient sur le fait que, de nos jours, les individus peuvent facilement être informés et mobilisés grâce à l’usage d’Internet et des smartphones. Cette nouvelle connectivité autorise alors ces start-up à tirer parti des ressources physiques et logistiques de la foule en utilisant ces ressources variées (force motrice, véhicules personnels, transports en commun, etc.) pour faire réaliser à la foule une partie des opérations logistiques requises dans toute chaîne logistique : la livraison.

Quelles stratégies suivent les entreprises de crowd-delivery ?

L’essor de la crowd-delivery fait couler beaucoup d’encre, notamment en raison des modèles sociaux qui conduisent fréquemment à l’exploitation des livreurs. Sans négliger ces aspects, nous nous sommes intéressés plus particulièrement dans une recherche publiée dans la revue Finance Contrôle Stratégie aux stratégies suivies par les entreprises de crowd-delivery pour pénétrer le secteur de la distribution. La crowd-delivery semble en effet à même de remettre en cause l’équilibre concurrentiel du secteur en superposant, à un contexte omnicanal déjà complexe, une nouvelle façon de délivrer les produits aux consommateurs.

Certaines start-up proposant des services de crowd-delivery ont d’ailleurs déjà atteint des tailles impressionnantes. Instacart est ainsi passée d’une valorisation en 2017 à 3,4 milliards de dollars à 39 milliards en 2021  ! La plate-forme annonçait en 2019 mobiliser 500 000 shoppers et employer 5 261 personnes, elle travaille avec 600 distributeurs représentant 45 000 points de vente.

Quant à Postmates, estimée en octobre 2016 à 460 millions de dollars, elle a levé 140 millions de fonds supplémentaires pour finir par être rachetée en 2020 par Uber pour 2,65 milliards . Dans plusieurs secteurs (l’hôtellerie avec Airbnb, le transport de voyageurs avec Blablacar, etc.), l’irruption de ces acteurs digitaux et collaboratifs revêt ainsi un caractère disruptif.

La crowd-delivery comme prestataire de service logistique

L’analyse que nous avons réalisée auprès d’une trentaine de cas d’entreprises de crowd-delivery fait apparaître trois types de modèles d’affaires. Le premier consiste pour des entreprises à proposer, à des distributeurs, un service de livraison par la foule au consommateur final. Ces entreprises jouent alors un rôle de prestataire logistique, leur service visant à enrichir l’offre de livraison urbaine des distributeurs.

On peut citer comme exemple You2you, devenu Yper, présent dans plus de 5 000 villes françaises. L’une des entreprises emblématiques de ce modèle en France est shopopop qui fait opérer par de simples particuliers des livraisons depuis la grande distribution, distribution spécialisée, depuis des commerçants indépendants, fleuristes, cavistes, etc. L’entreprise nantaise, née en 2015, a levé en décembre 20 millions d’euros, elle sert un demi-million de clients en France et se développe en Europe via l’Italie, le Portugal et la Belgique pour commencer.

Ce prestataire est toujours resté fidèle à la livraison par la foule et met en avant sur son site que les shoppers qui souhaitent le rejoindre n’ont pas besoin d’un statut d’auto-entrepreneur. Les 300 000 livreurs ainsi mobilisés travaillent ainsi exclusivement dans le cadre d’un complément de revenu.

La crowd-delivery comme distributeur urbain en ligne

Le deuxième type de modèle est présenté par les entreprises qui proposent à des consommateurs une plate-forme d’achats en ligne incluant un service de livraison par la foule. Elles jouent un rôle de distributeur urbain en ligne, leur service visant à donner aux consommateurs d’une zone urbaine accès à l’offre d’une variété de producteurs/distributeurs existants.

On peut citer Instacart, qui envoie des shoppers américains faire les courses dans des supermarchés, ou bien sûr Deliveroo qui permet d’accéder à une offre de restaurants depuis son téléphone. Ici, les particuliers qui assurent les livraisons sont plus souvent des auto-entrepreneurs que de simples individus à la recherche d’une activité d’appoint.

Il n’est d’ailleurs pas rare qu’ils travaillent en parallèle pour de nombreuses plates-formes et leurs conditions de travail sont souvent dégradées. Cela étant, le modèle poursuit son expansion, s’attaque après les métropoles aux villes françaises de taille moyenne, tant l’appétence des consommateurs pour la livraison à domicile déjà forte, sort renforcée de la période Covid.

La crowd-delivery comme pivot d’une offre intégrée

Le troisième modèle concerne les entreprises qui commercialisent elles-mêmes leur offre en la faisant livrer par la foule. Ces firmes contrôlent la conception et la production de l’offre qu’elles délivrent aux clients à l’aide de la foule. On peut citer comme exemple PopChef, qui livre les repas qu’elle fabrique elle-même par le biais de livreurs à vélo. Ce modèle renferme des initiatives contrastées.

Il est en effet pris d’assaut par les « ghost kitchen » ou « dark kitchen », restaurants virtuels qui se sont notamment développés pendant le confinement s’appuyant sur la limitation des ressources humaines (pas de service) et la faible importance de l’emplacement pour développer leur profitabilité.

Sans surprise, si des restaurateurs ferment parfois leur point de vente physique pour opter pour ce modèle, il est souvent très attractif pour les grands faiseurs du modèle précédent qui cherchent à remonter dans la chaîne de valeur : c’est ainsi Deliveroo qui a lancé le premier concept de cuisine partagée pour les restaurateurs en Angleterre en 2017.

Le potentiel disruptif du distributeur urbain en ligne

Parmi ces trois modèles, celui qui possède le caractère le plus disruptif est sans conteste celui de distributeur urbain en ligne. En effet, les applications mises en œuvre par les start-up pour référencer et distribuer l’offre des distributeurs, si elles offrent à ces derniers une visibilité et une augmentation des ventes appréciables, ne se contentent pas de capter une partie de leurs marges. La montée en puissance de ces nouveaux intermédiaires est susceptible d’entraîner pour les distributeurs une perte du contact direct avec les consommateurs.

Ainsi, si les consommateurs américains continuent à utiliser en nombre Instacart, rien n’empêchera cet acteur de mettre en concurrence les distributeurs traditionnels entre eux pour négocier des rabais pour ses utilisateurs. Le danger est d’autant plus fort pour les distributeurs que les start-up de la crowd-delivery ne sont plus des prestataires anonymes mais déploient un marketing agressif (communication virale, mise en avant du nom de l’entreprise sur les moyens de transport, etc.). Ces start-up s’attachent en effet à être fortement visibles par les particuliers : à la fois employés potentiels (la foule) et clients potentiels (de la plate-forme). En avançant ainsi « masquées », ces entreprises réorganisent la distribution.

Quelle réponse stratégique des distributeurs ?

Il n’est cependant pas sûr que les entreprises concernées parviendront à prendre la place des distributeurs car ces derniers ont pris conscience de cette menace, et cherchent à éviter la perte de lien direct avec le consommateur. L’enjeu est que leurs points de vente ne deviennent pas de simples entrepôts où les « personnal shoppers » de la crowd-delivery iraient puiser pour répondre aux demandes de leurs clients.

Pour cela, certains développent leurs propres services de crowd-delivery, et utilisent, comme Walmart, leurs propres employés. D’autres ont racheté un acteur de la crowd-delivery, comme l’a fait Monoprix avec epicery.

Mais pour autant cette logique de « dark stores » se multiplie et inquiète. L’un des enjeux est peut-être de jouer sur le marketing expérientiel, afin de donner envie aux consommateurs de fréquenter le point de vente physique ! Au-delà de ce point, l’autre interrogation a trait aux fragilités de leur propre modèle social.

Instacart a ainsi vu 31 000 membres de sa « foule » entamer une class action contre les pratiques salariales de l’entreprise ce qui génère de fortes interrogations sur la viabilité – à terme – de son modèle contractuel.

Quelle régulation du secteur par les pouvoirs publics ?

Alors que, comme nous l’évoquions au début de l’article, le modèle social de ces entreprises fait débat, il est clair que leur avenir dépendra des régulations qui seront ou non imposées par les États. Le constat que l’on peut faire aujourd’hui est qu’il y a urgence à agir pour donner un réel cadre protecteur au travail des livreurs et promouvoir des livraisons qui n’aient pas un impact environnemental important.

Les pouvoirs publics doivent prendre leurs responsabilités, pour éviter la dérive que l’on observe : des start-up qui ne payent pas leurs impôts en France, tout en captant une partie de la valeur auprès d’entreprises qui y sont implantées, en utilisant une main-d’œuvre très peu protégée, qui pour livrer rapidement tend de plus en plus à mobiliser des scooters polluants et génère des tonnes de carton ! Bref, un désastre social et écologique pour satisfaire un consommateur pressé et mal habitué ?

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• distribution
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Will Knight

Google DeepMind’s Groundbreaking AI for Protein Structure Can Now Model DNA

Google spent much of the past year hustling to build its Gemini chatbot to counter ChatGPT , pitching it as a multifunctional AI assistant that can help with work tasks or the digital chores of personal life. More quietly, the company has been working to enhance a more specialized artificial intelligence tool that is already a must-have for some scientists.

AlphaFold , software developed by Google’s DeepMind AI unit to predict the 3D structure of proteins, has received a significant upgrade. It can now model other molecules of biological importance, including DNA, and the interactions between antibodies produced by the immune system and the molecules of disease organisms. DeepMind added those new capabilities to AlphaFold 3 in part through borrowing techniques from AI image generators.

“This is a big advance for us,” Demis Hassabis , CEO of Google DeepMind, told WIRED ahead of Wednesday’s publication of a paper on AlphaFold 3 in the science journal Nature . “This is exactly what you need for drug discovery: You need to see how a small molecule is going to bind to a drug, how strongly, and also what else it might bind to.”

AlphaFold 3 can model large molecules such as DNA and RNA, which carry genetic code, but also much smaller entities, including metal ions. It can predict with high accuracy how these different molecules will interact with one another, Google’s research paper claims.

The software was developed by Google DeepMind and Isomorphic labs, a sibling company under parent Alphabet working on AI for biotech that is also led by Hassabis. In January, Isomorphic Labs announced that it would work with Eli Lilly and Novartis on drug development.

AlphaFold 3 will be made available via the cloud for outside researchers to access for free, but DeepMind is not releasing the software as open source the way it did for earlier versions of AlphaFold. John Jumper, who leads the Google DeepMind team working on the software, says it could help provide a deeper understanding of how proteins interact and work with DNA inside the body. “How do proteins respond to DNA damage; how do they find, repair it?” Jumper says. “We can start to answer these questions.”

Understanding protein structures used to require painstaking work using electron microscopes and a technique called x-ray crystallography. Several years ago, academic research groups began testing whether deep learning , the technique at the heart of many recent AI advances, could predict the shape of proteins simply from their constituent amino acids, by learning from structures that had been experimentally verified.

In 2018, Google DeepMind revealed it was working on AI software called AlphaFold to accurately predict the shape of proteins. In 2020, AlphaFold 2 produced results accurate enough to set off a storm of excitement in molecular biology. A year later, the company released an open source version of AlphaFold for anyone to use, along with 350,000 predicted protein structures, including for almost every protein known to exist in the human body. In 2022 the company released more than 2 million protein structures.

Joel Khalili

Reece Rogers

Brian Barrett

The latest AlphaFold’s ability to model different proteins was improved in part through an algorithm called a diffusion model that helps AI image generators like Dall-E and Midjourney create weird and sometimes photo-real imagery. The diffusion model inside AlphaFold 3 sharpens the molecular structures the software generates. The diffusion model is able to generate plausible protein structures based on patterns it picked up from analyzing a collection of verified protein structures, much as an image generator learns from real photographs how to render realistic-looking snapshots.

AlphaFold 3 is not perfect, though, and offers a color-coded confidence scale for its predictions. Areas of a protein structure colored blue indicate high confidence, while red areas show less certainty.

David Baker , a professor at the University of Washington who leads a group working on techniques for protein design, has competed with AlphaFold. In 2021, before DeepMind open sourced its creation, his team released an independent protein-structure prediction inspired by AlphaFold. His own lab recently released a diffusion model to help model a wider range of molecular structures, but he concedes that AlphaFold 3 is more capable. “The structure prediction performance of AlphaFold 3 is very impressive,” Baker says.

Baker adds that it is a shame that the source code for AlphaFold 3 has not been released to the scientific community.

Hassabis, who leads all of Alphabet’s AI initiatives, has long taken a special interest in the potential for AI to accelerate scientific research . But he says the latest techniques being developed for AlphaFold, a highly specialized AI system, could prove useful for building more general systems that aim to exceed human capabilities on many dimensions.

If AI programs like Google’s Gemini become a lot more capable over the next decade, he says, “you could imagine them using things like AlphaFold as tools, to achieve some other goal.”

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OpenAI Releases ‘Deepfake’ Detector to Disinformation Researchers

The prominent A.I. start-up is also joining an industrywide effort to spot content made with artificial intelligence.

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By Cade Metz and Tiffany Hsu

Reporting from San Francisco

As experts warn that images, audio and video generated by artificial intelligence could influence the fall elections , OpenAI is releasing a tool designed to detect content created by its own popular image generator, DALL-E . But the prominent A.I. start-up acknowledges that this tool is only a small part of what will be needed to fight so-called deepfakes in the months and years to come.

On Tuesday, OpenAI said it would share its new deepfake detector with a small group of disinformation researchers so they could test the tool in real-world situations and help pinpoint ways it could be improved.

“This is to kick-start new research,” said Sandhini Agarwal, an OpenAI researcher who focuses on safety and policy. “That is really needed.”

OpenAI said its new detector could correctly identify 98.8 percent of images created by DALL-E 3, the latest version of its image generator. But the company said the tool was not designed to detect images produced by other popular generators like Midjourney and Stability.

Because this kind of deepfake detector is driven by probabilities, it can never be perfect. So, like many other companies, nonprofits and academic labs, OpenAI is working to fight the problem in other ways.

Like the tech giants Google and Meta, the company is joining the steering committee for the Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity, or C2PA, an effort to develop credentials for digital content. The C2PA standard is a kind of “nutrition label” for images, videos, audio clips and other files that shows when and how they were produced or altered — including with A.I.

OpenAI also said it was developing ways of “watermarking” A.I.-generated sounds so they could easily be identified in the moment. The company hopes to make these watermarks difficult to remove.

Anchored by companies like OpenAI, Google and Meta, the A.I. industry is facing increasing pressure to account for the content its products make. Experts are calling on the industry to prevent users from generating misleading and malicious material — and to offer ways of tracing its origin and distribution.

In a year stacked with major elections around the world, calls for ways to monitor the lineage of A.I. content are growing more desperate. In recent months, audio and imagery have already affected political campaigning and voting in places including Slovakia, Taiwan and India.

OpenAI’s new deepfake detector may help stem the problem, but it won’t solve it. As Ms. Agarwal put it: In the fight against deepfakes, “there is no silver bullet.”

Cade Metz writes about artificial intelligence, driverless cars, robotics, virtual reality and other emerging areas of technology. More about Cade Metz

Tiffany Hsu reports on misinformation and disinformation and its origins, movement and consequences. She has been a journalist for more than two decades. More about Tiffany Hsu

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News  and Analysis

Ilya Sutskever, the OpenAI co-founder and chief scientist who in November joined three other board members to force out Sam Altman before saying he regretted the move, is leaving the company .

OpenAI has unveiled a new version of its ChatGPT chatbot  that can receive and respond to voice commands, images and videos.

A bipartisan group of senators released a long-awaited legislative plan for A.I. , calling for billions in funding to propel U.S. leadership in the technology while offering few details on regulations.

The Age of A.I.

D’Youville University in Buffalo had an A.I. robot speak at its commencement . Not everyone was happy about it.

A new program, backed by Cornell Tech, M.I.T. and U.C.L.A., helps prepare lower-income, Latina and Black female computing majors  for A.I. careers.

Publishers have long worried that A.I.-generated answers on Google would drive readers away from their sites. They’re about to find out if those fears are warranted, our tech columnist writes .

A new category of apps promises to relieve parents of drudgery, with an assist from A.I.  But a family’s grunt work is more human, and valuable, than it seems.