Why We Invested in Axle: The Software Behind Wall Street's Most Important Relationships

When we met Sam Shapiro, he'd already accomplished something most enterprise software founders spend years trying to do. He'd convinced some of the world's largest investment banks to replace the technology behind a critical part of their business, and he'd done it without decades of industry experience or a Rolodex of banking executives.

Sam is the co-founder and CEO of Axle, a company rebuilding the infrastructure behind how public companies connect with institutional investors. Having started his career in corporate access at Goldman Sachs, he saw firsthand how outdated the technology supporting these relationships had become. Rather than accept that this was simply how Wall Street worked, he decided to build something better.

By the time we met him, major financial institutions were already paying for his software, with others close behind. In an industry known for long sales cycles and resistance to change, that was no small accomplishment.

Sam wasn't asking us to believe he could break into Wall Street. He was showing us that he already had.

That's what convinced us to invest, and we're thrilled to co-lead Axle's $9 million round alongside our friends at Eniac, with participation from Teamworthy Ventures, founded by GLG co-founder Thomas Lehrman.

Why Corporate Access Is Ready for Change

Wall Street has spent decades making trading faster and more efficient, yet the systems behind how public companies meet their investors have barely changed. Corporate access, the function within investment banks that connects public company management teams with institutional investors through conferences, roadshows, field trips, and other events, remains heavily dependent on spreadsheets and disconnected legacy software.

This isn't just an administrative headache. Corporate access is an important revenue source for investment banks, and the work goes well beyond scheduling meetings. Banks need to understand which investors are interested in which companies, how those relationships are developing, and where new business opportunities might exist. But that information is often scattered across systems that were never designed to work together.

"I spent 20 years in investment banking, and I know how much of the business runs on relationships. Corporate access is an important part of that, but the technology supporting it hasn't kept pace. Axle is tackling a problem banks have lived with for far too long."

— Mark Mullen, Co-Founder, Bonfire Ventures

Axle brings those workflows onto one platform that integrates with a bank's existing CRM. It manages conferences, roadshows, analyst marketing, and expert meetings, while its AI agents can build meeting schedules in minutes, help identify the right investors for each company, and give teams a clearer picture of client engagement. Instead of spending hours coordinating logistics and piecing together information, teams can focus on the relationships that actually drive the business.

Building Something Much Bigger

Corporate access is where Axle is starting, but the team's ambitions go well beyond it. The platform already touches multiple teams across an investment bank, giving Axle a natural path into other workflows. The company is expanding into areas like broker voting, helping banks measure the value they deliver to clients, with a longer-term goal of connecting more of the systems banks use to manage their relationships and distribute investment opportunities.

Sam describes his vision as building something like Bloomberg for distribution rather than trading. While Bloomberg provides the tools financial professionals use to access market information and execute trades, Sam envisions a platform that connects banks, companies, and investors across the process of marketing and distributing securities.

It's a much bigger vision than corporate access software alone, and getting there will take time. But Axle is starting with a workflow banks already depend on, building relationships with major financial institutions, and creating opportunities to expand as those customers adopt more of its products.

Why We Believe in the Axle Team

Throughout our diligence, what stood out was Sam's understanding of the market, his ability to explain a complicated problem with clarity, and his determination to challenge how the industry operates. His experience at Goldman Sachs gave him firsthand knowledge of the problem, but he wasn't so entrenched in the industry that he accepted the way things had always been done.

"Sam knew enough about investment banking to see what was broken, but wasn't so entrenched that he accepted the status quo. And he wasn't just pitching a vision. He'd already convinced some of the world's biggest banks to buy his software."

— Tyler Churchill, Bonfire Ventures

Of course, convincing banks to adopt new software is only part of the challenge. The product also has to meet the technical demands of some of the world's largest financial institutions. Alongside his co-founders and engineering leaders, Chris Piper and Chris Goodkind, Sam has built a platform that powers thousands of investor events a year and integrates with the core systems these institutions already rely on.

What gives us confidence is what the three of them have accomplished together. They've built a sophisticated product, earned the trust of demanding customers, and demonstrated that they can execute in an industry where new technology isn't easily adopted. We're proud to back Sam, Chris, Chris, and the entire Axle team as they continue building.