Logistics fintech platform Axle Payments announced Thursday it has rebranded as Denim after declaring the company has closed its $126 million Series B funding round to continue building out payment solutions across the supply chain.
The funding round — led by Pelion Venture Partners with participation from Crosslink Capital, Anthemis, Trucks VC, FJ Labs, Tribeca Early Stage Partners and Refashioned Ventures — consists of $26 million in equity financing and $100 million in debt financing. Since 2017, the payments platform provider has raised over $165 million.
“Denim’s innovation within the freight and logistics space has connected thousands through a payments infrastructure that streamlines the flow of money and data — an area where we see a great need for technological advancement and one where Denim will continue to capitalize,” said Blake Modersitzki, managing partner at Pelion Venture Partners. “We are excited to partner with [co-founder and CEO] Bharath [Krishnamoorthy], [co-founder and chief technology officer] Shawn [Vo], the rest of Denim’s leadership team and our co-investors as the company continues its growth trajectory.”
| Funding details | Denim |
|---|---|
| Funding amount | $126 million ($26 million in equity financing and $100 million in debt financing) |
| Funding round | Series B |
| Lead investor | Pelion Venture Partners |
| Secondary investors | Crosslink Capital, Anthemis, Trucks VC, FJ Labs, Tribeca Early Stage Partners and Refashioned Ventures |
| Business goals for the round | Scale team for product development and sales |
| Total funding | $165 million |
The impetus behind the raise and rebrand go hand-in-hand. As Denim continued to scale the payment platform’s central products, company leadership said it began to recognize it would be producing solutions outside of the trucking industry — which largely contributed to its previous moniker.
“We have outgrown [Axle] and have been looking for a name that stands for just how unique we are in the space,” Jamie Waldinger, head of revenue, told FreightWaves. “Our growth ambitions have us outgrowing just trucking as we look to offer products and services to everyone within the freight industry.”
Waldinger explained the new branding stems from the company’s goal of becoming “a universal, dependable, reliable and flexible fabric” of supply chain participants.
“Our long-term vision is that our platform will become the everyday fabric of the global supply chain,” he said.
With the new branding in place and, according to the company, a $134 billion freight broker market to attack, Waldinger said Denim is focused on growing its employee count to build more invoicing, collection and payment automation tools and scale its sales initiatives.
“We have well over 100 employees now and we are growing fast,” Waldinger said. “We are investing in product development [roles], and we are scaling our customer acquisition channels to get our new name out into the industry.”
Denim, known as Axle Payments at the time, was voted as the top day one demos by attendees at FreightWaves’ Future of Supply Chain event in May.
On Wednesday, the payments platform was also voted as one of FreightWaves’ 2023 FreightTech 100, a listing of the industry’s most innovative companies selected by FreightWaves analysts, researchers, market experts and journalists.
Denim also is looking to receive the honor of making the FreightTech 25 list set to be announced at FreightWaves’ F3: Future of Freight Festival on Nov. 3 in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
Watch now: Axle Payments Demo at FOSC
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