Corporate learning startup 17muscles announced today that it has raised an initial round of funding, and has changed its name to Axonify.

The investment, led by Bridgescale Partners in Menlo Park, CA, with participation from the Investment Accelerator Fund (IAF) in Toronto, ON, will be used by Axonify to fund product advancement, raise awareness about the company's offering and accelerate growth into new markets.

"We're extremely excited that Bridgescale and IAF believe in what we're doing and are investing to help us rapidly accelerate our business," said Carol Leaman, Axonify's President and CEO. "We're also excited to rebrand our offering and incorporate the word 'Axon' into our name, highlighting the critical role that these nerve components play in the learning and retention process."

Axonify's platform is built on principles of behavioral learning and specifically the concept of "spaced repetition" -- an evidence-based technique researchers have found to have a stunning impact on knowledge retention. Axonify is the first organization to take the concept of spaced repetition and apply it effectively in a corporate environment to close the gap between what employees know, and what they need to know.

"Axonify takes corporate learning to the next level," said Rob Chaplinsky, co-founder and Managing Director of Bridgescale Partners. "No one else is delivering personalized, bite-sized, dynamic learning in a gamified and rewarding way that can be directly tied to millions in annual corporate ROI."

"The IAF is thrilled to be investing in Axonify," said Barry Gekiere, IAF Managing Director. "We believe this company has the potential to become a world-leader in the space and is changing the way companies train their employees."

About Axonify
The Axonify platform enables organizations to easily motivate and engage employees in the learning process through delivery of personalized, bite-sized content in the form of daily questions and information in topic areas those organizations care about. Whether it's loss prevention, health & safety, sales or customer service, Axonify makes learning fun through gamification and rewards. The system creates a real-time, personalized knowledge map employee by employee, which identifies and closes information gaps. Participation and success rates are measured and correlated to specific corporate outcomes that drive revenue or reduce expenses. For more information, please visit: www.axonify.com. (Twitter: @Axonify)

About Bridgescale Partners
Bridgescale Partners is a Menlo Park, California based venture capital firm providing equity to U.S. and Canada-based, technology companies. The investment team has more than 40 years of venture capital experience investing in early- and later-stage technology companies. Additionally, the team has invested in more than 100 technology companies in the software, security, digital media, Internet, and communication markets. For more information, please visit www.bridgescale.com.

About Investment Accelerator Fund
MaRS Investment Accelerator Fund (IAF) (Twitter: @MaRSIAF) invests in qualified emerging companies in Ontario using an equity-type instrument. As a critical component of the Ontario Network of Excellence (ONE), the IAF supports the launch and development of innovative businesses in Ontario's priority sectors of advanced materials and manufacturing, information technology, cleantech and life sciences. The IAF is funded by the Government of Ontario and delivered by MaRS.