Sourcing finds the deal. We handle what comes after.
Axial is a deal sourcing and marketplace platform for the lower middle market — strong for finding sponsors, banker relationships, and deal opportunities. Capital Refinery sits above it as the decision integrity layer once the team commits to underwriting one.
Different layers of the same workflow.
What Axial owns
Lower-middle-market sourcing and deal flow.
Strong for sponsor and banker relationships, deal-flow distribution, and marketplace-style sourcing. Right tool for top-of-funnel discovery in the lower middle market.
What Capital Refinery owns
The IC decision and the drift after it.
Lane-aware IC memo from raw deal pack, Risk Signals graded against firm policy, source-backed numbers, IC anchor on approval, drift tracking, signed exports.
Why teams run both
Axial finds the deal. Capital Refinery makes sure the decision survives it.
Sourcing and decision integrity are different jobs. Axial brings the deal in. Capital Refinery turns the source pack into a graded IC record. Teams running Axial naturally extend into Capital Refinery for the IC layer.
Institutional readiness measurement
Axial solves lower middle-market deal flow — connecting buyers, sellers, and intermediaries on private capital transactions. Capital Refinery operates a category Axial doesn’t: institutional readiness measurement on the businesses moving through that deal flow — graded against the same 10-axis framework that buy-side ICs, lender credit committees, and LPs use to evaluate. The artifact carries a deterministic fingerprint and a public verification URL.
The two product surfaces don’t compete — they operate at different layers of the stack. Axial handles deal-flow connectivity; Capital Refinery handles structural readiness measurement on the business itself and decision integrity through the lifecycle. See institutional readiness and for bankers for the dimension Axial doesn’t address.
Already running Axial for sourcing? Add the IC layer above it.
Bring us a deal once it's in your top-of-funnel. Same-day diagnostic pack back.
Keep Axial if you need lower-middle-market deal sourcing network. Use Capital Refinery when you need a neutral, evidence-backed readiness artifact that shows what will survive institutional review.
Capital Refinery is the institutional measurement layer. It does not replace Axial; it sits next to it. The decision to engage is a routing decision, not a swap.
Working with an advisor or AI consultant? Use CR as the independent measurement layer via the Modernization Impact Review. Want to shape the methodology? Apply as a design partner.