Axya, a Montreal manufacturing software company, has raised $17 million to expand an artificial-intelligence platform that automates procurement for industrial manufacturers, the company said Sept. 24, 2026, pushing its total financing since 2019 to $22.4 million.
The round is split between $12 million in equity and $5 million in venture debt. Toronto-based McRock Capital led the equity portion, with participation from Yamaha Motor Ventures, the Business Development Bank of Canada’s Industrial Innovation Venture Fund and Montreal’s Real Ventures, according to the company. CIBC Innovation Banking provided the debt financing, a newer relationship the company said will support its expansion plans. Udit Bhatnagar, a partner at McRock, is joining Axya’s board.
Axya’s software, which was founded as GRAD4 before rebranding, plugs into enterprise resource planning systems from vendors including SAP, Oracle, Infor, Epicor, Microsoft Dynamics and Sage to automate sourcing, quoting and supplier management for manufacturers. Chief executive Felix Belisle-Dockrill, a mechanical engineer with a background in aerospace supplier quality, said procurement has lagged other manufacturing functions despite years of digital investment elsewhere in the business. “Despite major investments in digital transformation, procurement remains one of the most fragmented functions,” he said, adding the new funding will deepen the platform’s AI-based risk detection and optimization tools.
The company said it processes hundreds of millions of dollars in transactions monthly across a network of more than 80,000 suppliers, with net revenue retention near 140 per cent among its roughly 40-person team. Customers include GE Aerospace and MDA Space, the Brampton, Ont., satellite and robotics manufacturer, pointing to early traction in aerospace and defence supply chains where procurement errors carry outsized cost. Axya said it plans to grow to 55 employees by the end of 2026 and deepen its presence in the U.S. market.
The financing lands as McRock Capital, one of Canada’s few dedicated industrial-technology venture funds, works through a third fund that closed an initial $120 million Cdn ($88 million US) in December 2025, short of its original $200-million target. McRock co-founder Scott MacDonald has said the firm’s founding bet that industrial markets were due for a technology overhaul has been validated, with artificial intelligence now driving a second wave of investment interest. The firm’s earlier bets in industrial software, including traffic-management firm Miovision and smart-display maker E2ip Technologies, have each grown past $100 million in annual revenue, and McRock says its first fund is on pace to return three times committed capital to investors. Bhatnagar said Axya fits that thesis directly: “Axya brings AI directly into that workflow, helping manufacturers make better decisions.”
The blended equity-and-debt structure also reflects a financing pattern increasingly used by Canadian scale-ups to fund growth while limiting dilution, pairing traditional venture capital with specialized lenders such as CIBC’s innovation banking arm. For Canadian manufacturers navigating tighter margins and cross-border supply chain pressure, the deal is a signal that homegrown investors still see procurement, a function often overlooked in the broader push toward factory automation, as fertile ground for AI tools built and financed in Canada.
