Axle Payments rebrands to Denim, raises $126m

By Edlyn Cardoza

Denim, the leading financial enablement platform for the freight and logistics industry, announced the closing of a $126 million Series B led by Pelion Venture Partners, including $26 million in equity financing and $100 million in debt financing. The funding combines equity to scale its platform and debt financing to provide working capital to freight brokerages. Along with its new capital, the company also reintroduced itself as Denim.

“The core challenge our clients face is adapting to the pressures of an increasingly complex and unpredictable supply chain. Freight brokers — and the shippers and carriers they work with — must find ways to evolve how they do business together with smarter tools,” said Bharath Krishnamoorthy, chief executive officer and co-founder of Denim. “Denim is pioneering the financial enablement market to meet this challenge, benefiting all parties along the supply chain. With the support of our investors, we’ll continue to scale and serve our clients while strengthening our position as a payments ecosystem that powers the supply chain.”

Denim will leverage the funding to continue scaling the team and fuel product expansion efforts to meet the growing needs of the $134 billion freight broker market. Specifically, Denim will continue to build on its strong customer demand by providing flexible financing and automation tools that reduce daily payments and collections tasks by 75%.

The Series B funding round, which Pelion Venture Partners led, included participation from Crosslink Capital, Anthemis, Trucks VC, FJ Labs, Tribeca Early Stage Partners, and Refashiond Ventures. In total, Denim has raised $165 million in three years.

“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 capitalise. We are excited to partner with Bharath, Shawn, the rest of Denim’s leadership team, and our co-investors as the company continues its growth trajectory,” said Blake Modersitzki, managing partner at Pelion Venture Partners.

The new brand, Denim, symbolises the company’s goal to build a stronger supply chain through reliable, flexible and easy-to-use tools. Compared to how denim revolutionised the way people work and dress, Denim’s financial enablement platform is on a path to making freight shipment payments easy and trustworthy at every step of the supply chain.

“Denim embodies who we are as a team and what we want to achieve in the freight and logistics industry – to be a reliable, essential, and universal partner to our clients,” said Shawn Vo, chief technology officer and co-founder of Denim. “In the last year, our business has evolved and grown dramatically, including enhancements to our platform that help our clients optimise their financial decisions and considerable additions to our teams. We’re excited to unveil our new name and branding as we move into the next phase of growth.”