Toronto tech darling was just bought by H&R Block for $537 million

H&R Block is buying a Toronto-based financial tech company for $537 million — one of the biggest Canadian tech purchases ever.

Wave Financial, a tool that helps small business owners and freelancers manage their assets, announced that it entered into a definitive agreement with international tax services company H&R Block today.

“Wave provides us the opportunity to accelerate our small business strategy and is a great strategic fit, as both companies can leverage each others’ capabilities to bring tax and financial solutions to small business owners,” H&R Block CEO Jeff Jones said in a press release.

“It just shows that you can scale business [in Canada], you can drive incredible customer value here, you can build big business here,” founder Kirk Simpson told BetaKit.

H&R Block has signed an agreement to acquire Wave. That’s a big deal in the entrepreneurial ecosystem

— Kristofferson Nunes (@PurplecowKris) June 11, 2019

In 2009, Simpson and John Lochrie founded Wave on Carlaw Avenue in Leslieville. In 2010, they had eight employees. Now, they have over 250 employees and more than three million entrepreneurs and freelancers using their platform.

The Wave-H&R Block relationship started as a funding round. In late 2018, Wave was reaching out to potential investors. When they met with H&R Block, they ended up talking about partnership opportunities.

The new thing (Wave) to be acquired by the older thing (H&R Block) which amounts to semi-unicorn @ $537M not too shabby for a 10 yr old company, Congrats! @WaveHQ https://t.co/Janr5onSQJ

— Paul Leppky (@pleppky) June 11, 2019

Wave will operate independently and continue to be led by Simpson, but he will report to H&R Block CEOs.

The deal is expected to close in the next few months.