Comcast Ventures, the corporate venturing arm of mass media company Comcast, has participated in a $14m series C round for Axial, the US-based operator of an online capital market.
Growth equity firm Edison Partners led the round, which included venture capital firms First Round and Redpoint Ventures.
Founded in 2010, Axial has built an online network where middle-market chief executives can utilise dynamic search and matching technology to find M&A advisors, lenders and buyers who can provide them with financing.
Axial’s platform is responsible for about 600 deals each month, according to the company, and more than $1bn in annual closed transaction volume.
Peter Lehrman, Axial’s founder and CEO, said: “Our true north is to dramatically transform how private companies access capital for growth or exit purposes. To do this, we must renovate the opaque, inefficient, and fragmented private capital markets, reconfiguring them to be in clear service to the CEO entrepreneur.
“This round of financing enables us to continue making big investments that will move the private capital markets towards that ideal state.”
Axial has now raised approximately $33.5m in total. Comcast Ventures took part in its $11m series B round in 2014, investing alongside First Round, Redpoint and undisclosed Axial members. Its earlier funding came from Redpoint, First Round, Cove Point Holdings and Windcrest Partners.