Freehand has raised $75 million to expand AI agents that handle invoices, supplier negotiations, payments, and other supply-chain tasks for large companies. Summary Battery Ventures and NewRoad Capital Partners co-led the $75 million funding round. Freehand says its agents are deployed at Meta, Unilever, Pfizer, and Johnson & Johnson. Customers recovered 5% to 10% of spending in some categories, according to company data. The startup will expand beyond invoice management into broader supply-chain operations. Freehand secures $75 million from US investors Battery Ventures and NewRoad Capital Partners co-led the round, with Nexus Venture Partners and PSP Growth also participating. Former US Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker runs PSP Growth. Freehand did not disclose the funding round’s valuation or specify whether it issued equity, debt, or another security. Battery Ventures general partner Dharmesh Thakker will join the startup’s board as part of the transaction. The funding follows Freehand’s emergence from stealth in February. The company says its software is already used by Meta, Unilever, Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer, Dunkin’, and Cardinal Health, although it has not disclosed the size or duration of those commercial agreements. Unilever confirmed it had adopted the technology for supply-chain work. “Freehand marks one of the first full-scale agentic deployments at Unilever,” Matt Algar, the company’s global vice-president of supply chain, said. Algar described the deployment as a shift “from software that assists to software that runs our supply chain.” How Freehand’s AI agents manage company spending 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’s enterprise resource planning system. 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. 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. 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. US supply-chain costs create an opening for AI 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. 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’s estimates rather than independently verified market totals. 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. Funding continues across AI, fintech, and crypto infrastructure Freehand’s 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 at a $1 billion valuation to connect traditional payment networks with stablecoins and continuous settlement. As crypto.news previously reported, World Foundation secured $52.5 million through a strategic WLD token sale to expand its World ID network. All tokens purchased in that transaction will remain locked for one year. Robinhood Chain launch platform Memecoin.Fun also raised $3.5 million through USDG. The platform plans to develop launchpad infrastructure, cross-chain bridge functions, and tools supporting memecoins across several blockchains. Freehand will use its new capital to move beyond invoice checking and payments. Its longer-term plan is to deploy agents across more supply-chain processes and spending categories, placing the company in direct competition with procurement platforms, business-process outsourcing firms, and established enterprise software providers.
