- Axle, an all-in-one financial services platform for the freight and logistics industry, announced recently that it has raised a $10 million Series A round of funding led by Crosslink Capital.
Axle — an all-in-one financial services platform for the freight and logistics industry — announced recently that it has raised a $10 million Series A round of funding led by Crosslink Capital. This financing follows a record year for Axle, during which volume grew 850% on their payments and financing platform for freight brokers and carriers.
This funding round includes participation from FJ Labs, Flexport, Tribeca Early Stage Partners, Ron Suber (fintech investor), Jett McCandless (founder, Project44), Michael Mook (CEO, Fundopolis and principal at Big Plan Holdings), Darshan Somashekar (co-founder, EasyBib and drop.io), Mandeep Arora (founder at Cantaloupe), and Daniel Warner (SVP at sennder) as well as existing investors, Anthemis Group, Techstars, and Plug and Play Ventures.
Axle plans to use the funding to expand operations, grow its client base, and further develop its payments and financing platform. And the new tools and services will allow clients to more efficiently and effectively run their back offices.
There are more than 100,000 logistics businesses in the United States, which are expected to generate $233.9 billion in revenue in 2021. And the industry is growing quickly, yet it has been slow to modernize. But an influx of tech-enabled and venture-backed freight brokers is putting pressure on incumbents to replace outdated systems. However, these incumbents do not have the infrastructure or expertise to digitize operations on their own.
Along with factoring invoices for its freight broker clients, Axle automates their carrier payments, invoicing, and collections, and integrates with preferred Transportation Management Systems and Accounting software programs to streamline their back-office. And Axle’s advantage over its competitors is that it seamlessly connects all parts of the freight brokering process, eliminating wasted time and money for its clients.
KEY QUOTES:
“Axle’s proprietary technology levels the playing field, so our customers can compete in a highly competitive market. With our financial platform, we’re empowering freight intermediaries to rapidly grow and differentiate their businesses in a cutthroat industry. We’re excited to partner with Crosslink to transform the freight and logistics industry.”
— CEO and co-founder Bharath Krishnamoorthy
“Crosslink is excited to partner with Bharath, Shawn and the Axle team. They have built an excellent foundation and established themselves as an industry leader in freight factoring and payment processing. We are impressed with their innovative platform and the growth they’ve experienced over the past 12 months. We look forward to helping them scale operations.”
— David Silverman, a partner at Crosslink Capital
“Axle’s continued growth is no surprise: it’s the right tech at the right time. This round of funding will allow Axle to continue building the premier digital financial services platform for the logistics industry.”
— Ruth Foxe-Blader of Anthemis, who led Axle’s Seed round
“Axle is a customer-first company. This funding will allow us to build additional features and functionality within our suite of products to continue to meet the needs of our growing customer base,” says
— Co-founder and CTO Shawn Vo
