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Freehand has raised $75 million to expand AI agents that handle invoices, supplier negotiations, payments, and other supply-chain tasks for large companies.<\/p>\n
\n Summary<\/span>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Battery Ventures and NewRoad Capital Partners co-led the round<\/a>, with Nexus Venture Partners and PSP Growth also participating. Former US Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker runs PSP Growth.<\/p>\n Freehand did not disclose the funding round\u2019s valuation or specify whether it issued equity, debt, or another security. Battery Ventures general partner Dharmesh Thakker will join the startup\u2019s board as part of the transaction.<\/p>\n The funding follows Freehand\u2019s emergence from stealth in February. The company says its software is already used by Meta, Unilever, Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer, Dunkin\u2019, and Cardinal Health, although it has not disclosed the size or duration of those commercial agreements.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Unilever confirmed it had adopted the technology for supply-chain work.<\/p>\n \u201cFreehand marks one of the first full-scale agentic deployments at Unilever,\u201d Matt Algar, the company\u2019s global vice-president of supply chain, said.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Algar described the deployment as a shift \u201cfrom software that assists to software that runs our supply chain.\u201d<\/p>\n Freehand focuses on the procure-to-pay process, beginning with invoices. Its AI agents can review contracts, negotiate supplier rates, identify overbilling, process payments, and reconcile transactions inside a customer\u2019s enterprise resource planning system.<\/p>\n These jobs have traditionally required a mix of legacy software and outsourced back-office teams. Freehand is betting that companies will increasingly use autonomous software to complete the work instead of only producing recommendations for human employees.<\/p>\n Its system uses what the company calls a Category Context Graph. The data structure connects information from emails and documents with transaction records stored inside company systems, creating a history of decisions, exceptions, and spending within each category.<\/p>\n Freehand claims early customers completed workflows five to seven times faster and reduced procure-to-pay cycles by more than 70%. It also says some customers recovered between 5% and 10% of spending in complex categories, but those figures have not been independently audited.<\/p>\n Freehand is targeting a large segment of American business spending. US companies spend more than $20 trillion annually on materials, logistics, data centers, and services, according to Bureau of Economic Analysis figures cited by the startup.<\/p>\n The company estimates that enterprises also spend $16 billion each year on supply-chain software and $348 billion on workers handling tasks that existing systems cannot complete. Those figures are Freehand\u2019s estimates rather than independently verified market totals.<\/p>\n Tariffs, taxes, and tighter immigration rules are adding costs to the outsourcing model used by many US companies. Freehand argues that these pressures could encourage businesses to automate more finance and supply-chain operations.<\/p>\n Freehand\u2019s round comes amid continued investor interest in software that automates financial and operational processes. Financial infrastructure startup Augustus raised $180 million in a Series B round<\/a> at a $1 billion valuation to connect traditional payment networks with stablecoins and continuous settlement.<\/p>\n As crypto.news previously reported, World Foundation secured $52.5 million<\/a> through a strategic WLD token sale to expand its World ID network. All tokens purchased in that transaction will remain locked for one year.<\/p>\n\n\n
Freehand secures $75 million from US investors<\/h2>\n
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How Freehand\u2019s AI agents manage company spending<\/h2>\n
US supply-chain costs create an opening for AI<\/h2>\n
Funding continues across AI, fintech, and crypto infrastructure<\/h2>\n