Freehand’s AI Brokers autonomously handle supply-chain spend for Meta, Unilever, Johnson & Johnson, Dunkin’, Pfizer and Cardinal Well being
Freehand, whose AI brokers handle supply-chain spend for Fortune 500 enterprises, immediately introduced $75 million in funding co-led by Battery Ventures and NewRoad Capital Companions, with participation from former U.S. Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker’s enterprise capital PSP Progress, Nexus Enterprise Companions and others.
American firms spend greater than $20 trillion a yr on the uncooked supplies, logistics, information facilities and companies that energy the U.S. economic system, based on the Bureau of Financial Evaluation. For many years, provide chain spend has been managed on legacy software program and armies of outsourced labor. Freehand replaces this equipment with autonomous AI Groups that make choices and take motion to barter charges, implement contracts, handle suppliers, course of funds, and reconcile information inside enterprise techniques.
This financing spherical follows Freehand’s current emergence from stealth with world deployments at Meta, Unilever, Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer, Dunkin’ and Cardinal Well being, as tariffs, taxes and immigration insurance policies put rising pressure on the outsourcing mannequin that has traditionally run world provide chains. Throughout early deployments, prospects have recovered 5-10% of spend in advanced classes, accomplished workflows 5–7x sooner, and decreased procure-to-pay cycles by greater than 70. Consequently, organizations are redeploying their workers to higher-value work whereas decreasing conventional outsourcing and BPO contracts.
Freehand solves one drawback exceptionally effectively: changing the outsourced labor and legacy software program used to audit and pay invoices throughout the provision chain. Its AI brokers run all the workflow – studying contracts, negotiating with suppliers, figuring out leakage, processing funds and shutting the loop with procurement – changing outsourced groups and legacy instruments that price organizations tens of tens of millions a yr.
“Freehand marks one of many first full-scale agentic deployments at Unilever and is an early anchor within the shift from software program that assists to software program that runs our provide chain,” stated Matt Algar, World VP of Provide Chain at Unilever.
“Enterprises spend $16 billion a yr on provide chain software program and one other $348 billion hiring individuals to do what this software program can not,” stated Nitin Jayakrishnan, co-founder and CEO of Freehand. “We constructed Freehand to shut that hole – with AI Brokers that resolve, act and take accountability for outcomes. That is the start of true autonomy within the enterprise.” Nitin beforehand constructed and bought Pando, an enterprise SaaS platform for logistics.
“The very nature of labor is altering, with AI,” stated Abhijeet Manohar, co-founder of Freehand. “Shifting from constructing software program for the consumer to constructing software program that’s the consumer meant we might drive far deeper transformation for our prospects. The distinction between an agent that acts and a chatbot that means is context.”
Freehand’s central IP is its Class Context Graph, which captures each determination, transaction and exception throughout a spend class. By unifying the unstructured information buried in paperwork and communication channels with the structured information in enterprise techniques, it offers the brokers the situational data of a tenured supply-chain skilled, together with an audit path explaining each determination. Each AI agent Freehand deploys is constructed on and constantly enriches the graph, making a compounding intelligence impact the place every determination improves the accuracy, context autonomy of the following.
“In Freehand we discovered an applied-AI firm with a vertical wedge and great buyer love, confirmed at a number of the world’s largest firms the place early indicators of enlargement had been taking part in out,” stated Dharmesh Thakker, Normal Accomplice at Battery Ventures, who’s becoming a member of Freehand’s board. “Not like co-pilots that merely reply questions, Freehand’s Brokers have enterprise context, make choices, and take actions – this company unlocks tens of millions in financial savings for enterprises.”
“What stood out to us about Freehand wasn’t simply the expertise, however the measurable enterprise outcomes prospects had been reaching,” stated Gregoire Lehmann, associate at NewRoad Capital Companions. “Freehand is delivering quick ROI by serving to enterprises scale back overpayments and working prices, enhance audit accuracy, and automate extremely handbook provide chain finance workflows. We imagine the corporate is effectively positioned to turn out to be the class chief in AI-native provide chain spend administration, and we’re excited to leverage NewRoad’s deep community of enterprises to assist broaden the corporate’s enterprise footprint.”
“America’s industrial competitiveness depends on how successfully our largest firms function,” stated Penny Pritzker, Founder and Chairman of PSP Companions & PSP Progress. “Freehand is one of some firms changing frontier AI into measurable productiveness positive factors throughout enterprise provide chains, with rigor, scale and accountability.”
