Axate

About Axate

Axate provides a payment solution tailored for digital publishers, enabling them to monetize their content beyond traditional subscription and advertising models. The company was founded in 2017 as Agate by Dominic Young, a media veteran with extensive experience at Newscorp, and was later joined by co-founder Victoria Silberbauer, a lawyer with a deep background in the publishing industry. Young's tenure at Newscorp revealed the limitations of advertising and subscription-based revenue, which prompted the creation of a more flexible system. The company’s core offering is a digital wallet that facilitates casual payments, allowing readers to pay for individual articles, videos, or audio content on a pay-as-you-go basis across a network of participating publishers.

The business model centers on creating a frictionless payment experience for consumers who are unwilling to commit to multiple subscriptions. Readers sign up once, add funds to their Axate wallet, and can then spend that balance across any publisher in the Axate network. This approach is designed to capture revenue from the large segment of casual readers who bounce off hard paywalls. Publishers retain full control over their pricing, setting per-article costs and daily or weekly spending caps, which rewards frequent readers with unlimited access after hitting a certain threshold. Axate operates on a revenue-share model, taking a percentage of the money users spend. The platform also supports subscriptions, allowing publishers to use the casual payment system as a funnel to convert readers into full subscribers.

Axate's platform functions as both a single sign-on and a shared payment system, which helps publishers collaborate and benefit from a network effect; as more publishers join, the wallet becomes more valuable to readers. This network is intended to help media companies, especially local and niche publications, to create a sustainable revenue stream independent of major tech platforms. The company has received funding, including a Seed round of approximately $497K (£360k) and a grant from Nesta's Future News Pilot Fund. Notable milestones include partnerships with publishers like the Toronto Star, Popbitch, and the Maidenhead Advertiser, demonstrating the application of its technology for both pay-per-article and daily pass models.