Axle Lands $27.7M For Freight Financing, B2B Payments

Axle, which works in cash flow for the freight and logistics industry, has raised $27.7 million in a funding round, which it intends to go toward continuing the company’s work in automating processes and boosting cash management, according to a press release.

The funding round was backed by Anthemis and Techstars, the release stated. Axle wants to use the money to help keep developing its products and expand to new markets.

With funds previously raised from leading freight technology investors such as Trucks VC and Fontinalis Partners, Axle has now raised $29.1 million total.

The company aims to automate back-office products and offer a 24-hour “QuickPay” service, allowing for a solidifying of the relationship between a broker and a carrier.

Axle is intended to fill a niche that hasn’t been often addressed in the specialty finance field, with its focus on helping trucking companies solve cash flow problems. The problem is expedited now that the pandemic has rattled supply chains worldwide, according to Bharath Krishnamoorthy, co-founder and CEO of Axle.

“Cash flow problems can be incredibly painful for freight brokers and freight forwarders,” said Krishnamoorthy in the release. “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.”

Hundreds of specialty finance companies exist for solving the cash flow problems of trucking companies, but few solutions are available for freight brokers or freight forwarders, the release stated.

Ruth Foxe-Blader, partner at Anthemis, said Axle is the type of solution needed for the current moment, “a tech-enabled solution providing liquidity to vital logistics providers through freight intermediaries,” according to the release.

“If COVID has shown us anything, it is just how vital ground freight is to the fabric of our economy,” she said in the release.