San Francisco-based Freehand has closed a $75 million funding round to accelerate the growth of its autonomous AI agents that oversee complex supply chain expenditures for major corporations. The investment was co-led by Battery Ventures and NewRoad Capital Partners, with additional backing from PSP Growth—the venture firm associated with former US Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker—Nexus Venture Partners, and other participants.
Freehand’s technology deploys AI teams that independently handle critical procurement and finance tasks traditionally reliant on outdated software systems and extensive outsourced workforces.
These agents review contracts, negotiate supplier terms, detect billing discrepancies, process payments, manage vendor relationships, and reconcile data directly within companies’ enterprise resource planning platforms.
The startup recently came out of stealth mode and already supports live implementations at prominent organizations including Meta, Unilever, Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer, Dunkin’, and Cardinal Health.
Early results reported by Freehand indicate that users have recouped 5 to 10 percent of spending in intricate categories, executed related processes five to seven times more quickly, and shortened overall procure-to-pay timelines by more than 70 percent.
Companies are responding by shifting internal staff toward more strategic responsibilities and scaling back conventional business process outsourcing arrangements.
This development arrives amid mounting pressures on traditional global supply chain models from tariffs, taxation changes, and immigration policies.
US firms alone allocate over $20 trillion annually to materials, logistics, data centers, and related services, according to Bureau of Economic Analysis figures.
Freehand positions its solution as a direct replacement for the combination of legacy tools and large outsourced teams that currently manage invoice auditing and payments—areas that can cost organizations tens of millions each year.
Co-founder and CEO Nitin Jayakrishnan, who previously founded and exited the logistics software company Pando, highlighted the broader opportunity: enterprises invest roughly $16 billion yearly in supply chain software while spending an additional $348 billion on personnel to perform tasks the technology still cannot handle.
Freehand aims to bridge that divide through agents capable of deciding, acting, and accepting responsibility for results, marking what he describes as the start of genuine enterprise autonomy.
Co-founder Abhijeet Manohar emphasized the shift from tools that merely assist users to systems that themselves function as the operator, stressing that rich contextual understanding separates true agents from simple suggestion engines.
At the core of Freehand’s approach is its Category Context Graph.
This system integrates unstructured information from documents and communications with structured enterprise data, equipping agents with the equivalent knowledge of seasoned supply chain professionals while generating a complete audit trail for every action.
Continuous enrichment of the graph creates compounding improvements in accuracy and independence over time.
Investors have pointed to both the technology and tangible customer results. Battery Ventures general partner Dharmesh Thakker, who is joining Freehand’s board, noted the company’s vertical focus and demonstrated traction at large-scale enterprises, contrasting its decision-making agents with basic copilots.
NewRoad Capital Partners’ Gregoire Lehmann cited the clear return on investment through reduced overpayments, lower operating costs, stronger audit coverage, and automation of manual workflows.
Penny Pritzker underscored the importance of operational efficiency at major firms for broader industrial competitiveness, praising Freehand’s conversion of advanced AI into accountable productivity gains.
Freehand intends to broaden its coverage beyond core invoice and payment processes into additional areas such as direct materials and maintenance, repair, and operations spending. Headquartered in San Francisco, the company continues building AI agents designed to more effectively deliver measurable savings and fully traceable outcomes without requiring extra headcount or expanded outsourcing.