Axle Raises $27.7M to Finance America’s Freight Brokers: Anthemis and Techstars Participate in Financing
New York, NY, August 14, 2020 --(PR.com)-- Axle, a cash flow management solution for the freight and logistics industry, announced today it has raised $27.7M in debt and equity financing. Leading fintech investors Anthemis and Techstars participated in the round. Including money previously raised from top freight-tech investors, such as Trucks VC and Fontinalis Partners, this brings the total raised by the company to $29.1M.
Axle helps freight brokers and freight forwarders better manage their cash flow by providing them with affordable working capital and automating their back-office work. Axle also enables their clients to easily offer their trucking company vendors a 24-hour “QuickPay” service that cements the relationship between broker and carrier.
“Cash flow problems can be incredibly painful for freight brokers and freight forwarders,” said Bharath Krishnamoorthy, co-founder and CEO of Axle. “Cash flow is even more critical now, as the pandemic and shutdowns have disrupted supply chains worldwide. Axle offers these logistics intermediaries the flexible financing they need to succeed in the economic downturn and throughout the recovery.”
Krishnamoorthy and co-founder Shawn Vo are longtime business partners who have been close friends since high school.
“Bharath and I actually had this idea while building a different transportation tech company. From that experience, we learned that cash flow is the make-or-break issue for most small businesses,” explained Vo, who is Axle’s CTO. “So, we leveraged our technology expertise to solve those cash flow issues for freight brokers and forwarders,” he added.
While there are hundreds of specialty finance companies in the US that focus on solving the cash flow problems of trucking companies, very few solutions are available for freight brokers or freight forwarders. Axle has built a unique solution for these intermediaries: a proprietary, software-based service that enables the brokers and forwarders to automate their own operational overhead. Axle’s clients are able to focus on their core business of delivering best-in-class service to their own clients.
Anthemis, Axle’s newest investor, has extensive experience helping companies bring new financial services to market. Axle seeks to leverage the new capital, as well as the investor’s deep domain expertise, to build out the company’s team, further develop their product, and position Axle to offer its services to additional markets.
“The Axle team is building exactly the kind of business we need right now: a tech-enabled solution providing liquidity to vital logistics providers through freight intermediaries. If COVID has shown us anything, it is just how vital ground freight is to the fabric of our economy,” said Ruth Foxe-Blader, Partner at Anthemis.
“In the US alone, freight brokers and freight forwarders assist in moving over $100B in freight every year,” said Shawn Vo. “Many of these brokers and forwarders are small, family-owned businesses, but together they arrange transportation for all the physical goods we use and consume every day, from food to furniture, and from lawnmowers to lumber.”
“At Axle, we do our best to make sure these companies have the capital they need to operate and grow,” Vo concluded.
About Axle
Axle is a venture-backed innovator in the freight finance sector. By combining decades of industry expertise with a next-generation technology platform, Axle is helping freight intermediaries modernize their operations and optimize their cash flows.
Bharath Krishnamoorthy
b@axlepayments.com
www.axlepayments.com
About Anthemis
Anthemis cultivates change in financial services by investing in, growing and sustaining businesses committed to improving the world. We are founded on three guiding principles - authentic collaboration, virtuous cycle outcomes, and diversity and inclusivity - and our deep understanding of markets and models, passion for emerging technology and values inspire everything we do. By creating fertile ground for a diverse group of startups, investors, entrepreneurs, institutions, academics and visionaries to converge, we believe we can solve the financial services world’s most pressing challenges faster, better and for the benefit of all.
Ruth Foxe-Blader
ruth@anthemis.com
www.anthemis.com
Axle helps freight brokers and freight forwarders better manage their cash flow by providing them with affordable working capital and automating their back-office work. Axle also enables their clients to easily offer their trucking company vendors a 24-hour “QuickPay” service that cements the relationship between broker and carrier.
“Cash flow problems can be incredibly painful for freight brokers and freight forwarders,” said Bharath Krishnamoorthy, co-founder and CEO of Axle. “Cash flow is even more critical now, as the pandemic and shutdowns have disrupted supply chains worldwide. Axle offers these logistics intermediaries the flexible financing they need to succeed in the economic downturn and throughout the recovery.”
Krishnamoorthy and co-founder Shawn Vo are longtime business partners who have been close friends since high school.
“Bharath and I actually had this idea while building a different transportation tech company. From that experience, we learned that cash flow is the make-or-break issue for most small businesses,” explained Vo, who is Axle’s CTO. “So, we leveraged our technology expertise to solve those cash flow issues for freight brokers and forwarders,” he added.
While there are hundreds of specialty finance companies in the US that focus on solving the cash flow problems of trucking companies, very few solutions are available for freight brokers or freight forwarders. Axle has built a unique solution for these intermediaries: a proprietary, software-based service that enables the brokers and forwarders to automate their own operational overhead. Axle’s clients are able to focus on their core business of delivering best-in-class service to their own clients.
Anthemis, Axle’s newest investor, has extensive experience helping companies bring new financial services to market. Axle seeks to leverage the new capital, as well as the investor’s deep domain expertise, to build out the company’s team, further develop their product, and position Axle to offer its services to additional markets.
“The Axle team is building exactly the kind of business we need right now: a tech-enabled solution providing liquidity to vital logistics providers through freight intermediaries. If COVID has shown us anything, it is just how vital ground freight is to the fabric of our economy,” said Ruth Foxe-Blader, Partner at Anthemis.
“In the US alone, freight brokers and freight forwarders assist in moving over $100B in freight every year,” said Shawn Vo. “Many of these brokers and forwarders are small, family-owned businesses, but together they arrange transportation for all the physical goods we use and consume every day, from food to furniture, and from lawnmowers to lumber.”
“At Axle, we do our best to make sure these companies have the capital they need to operate and grow,” Vo concluded.
About Axle
Axle is a venture-backed innovator in the freight finance sector. By combining decades of industry expertise with a next-generation technology platform, Axle is helping freight intermediaries modernize their operations and optimize their cash flows.
Bharath Krishnamoorthy
b@axlepayments.com
www.axlepayments.com
About Anthemis
Anthemis cultivates change in financial services by investing in, growing and sustaining businesses committed to improving the world. We are founded on three guiding principles - authentic collaboration, virtuous cycle outcomes, and diversity and inclusivity - and our deep understanding of markets and models, passion for emerging technology and values inspire everything we do. By creating fertile ground for a diverse group of startups, investors, entrepreneurs, institutions, academics and visionaries to converge, we believe we can solve the financial services world’s most pressing challenges faster, better and for the benefit of all.
Ruth Foxe-Blader
ruth@anthemis.com
www.anthemis.com
Contact
Axle Payments
Bharath Krishnamoorthy
703-463-7221
axlepayments.com
Bharath Krishnamoorthy
703-463-7221
axlepayments.com
Contact
Categories