Wave Accounting Raises $12M from Social+Capital Partnership, Charles River Ventures & OMERS Ventures

Wave Accounting, which makes 100 percent free accounting software for small and medium-sized businesses, has raised $12 million in a Series B round of financing from the Social+Capital Partnership (s23p), along with existing investors Charles River Ventures and OMERS Ventures. With the funding, Wave plans to continue aggressively increasing headcount, in engineering as well as sales and business development.

Wave was founded in July 2009 and launched its software in November 2010, introducing a cloud-based solution for small businesses that didn’t have accounting expertise. The app offers double-entry accounting, invoicing, expense tracking and financial dashboards, which provides data to small business owners who might have previously been reliant on spreadsheets to track payments. The product is completely free, with Wave making money off of advertising and offers that are made to users on the web.

So far, the software has been used by more than 250,000 small businesses in more than 200 countries around the world, although VP of Community, Content and Communications Rob Maurin says that about 70 percent of users come from North America. The company helps to manage more than $24.3 billion in income and spending for small businesses, most of which are nine employees or less.

Altogether, Wave Accounting has raised a total of $18.5 million. That includes a $5 million Series A round last October, along with a $1.5 million seed round in June 2011. It’s been adding personnel pretty quickly — doubling to about 45 employees since the beginning of the year — and it expects to keep hiring over the next several months. Maurin says most hiring will be in engineering, though the startup is looking to boost sales and business development.