Regional technology investor Axiomlab has defied market despondency by raising £12 million at 5.75p a share, in a move compared by some commentators to 'swimming the Channel', writes William Davidson.

Axiomlab's (AXM) £12 million fundraising, at a 2.25p discount to the previous market price of 8p, brought in several new institutions, as well as increasing the stakes of the existing investors who were there at last August's float, says managing director Fred Mendelsohn. Key shareholders now include heavyweights such as Merrill Lynch, the Bank of Scotland, M & G and Aberdeen Asset Managers, not to mention one Brian Souter, the fiercely patriotic Scottish boss of Stagecoach.

'We see it as a great vote of confidence in our ethos', said Mendelsohn. 'To get a big fundraising such as this in this market is a tremendous achievement'.

Axiomlab likes to think that it sticks out from the welter of internet investment businesses and so called incubators on the market at the moment. 'We see the quality of our people as a major factor'.

This claim is borne out by a list of non-executive directors and advisors including such luminaries as Senator George Mitchell (who is also on the board at Walt Disney and Xerox), the head of Microsoft in Scotland and the head of Cisco Systems in Ireland and Scotland.

Axiomlab puts its people to good use. Any investment or injection of capital is always accompanied by advice and people 'providing business building expertise'.

Mendelsohn believes that Axiomlab's goal is to 'professionalise' the gap between business angels and the larger venture capital field, with a strong regional bent. 'We can take a £2 million business and turn it into a £20 million business - and create oodles of shareholder value along the way', he claims. Today the shares dropped 1.5p to 6.5p ahead of the new shares' trading debut on 11 June.

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