Bengaluru: Freehand, an enterprise AI startup founded by Pando founder Nitin Jayakrishnan and Abhijeet Manohar, has raised $75 million in a funding round co-led by Battery Ventures and NewRoad Capital Partners.The round also saw participation from PSP Growth, the venture capital firm founded by former US commerce secretary Penny Pritzker, along with Nexus Venture Partners and other existing investors.Headquartered in San Francisco, Freehand develops AI agents that automate procurement and supply chain operations for large enterprises, including supplier management, invoice processing and payments. The startup said its platform is used by companies including Meta, Unilever, Johnson & Johnson, Dunkin’, Pfizer and Cardinal Health.Its AI agents can read contracts, validate invoices, detect overpayments, negotiate with suppliers and execute payments — tasks traditionally handled through a combination of enterprise software and outsourced teams.According to the company, customers using the platform have recovered 5%-10% of procurement spending in certain complex categories. It said workflows are completed five to seven times faster, while the procurement-to-payment cycle has been reduced by more than 70%.Jayakrishnan previously founded Pando, the Chennai- and US-based logistics software company. Freehand emerged from stealth earlier this year.“Enterprises spend $16 billion annually on supply chain software and another $348 billion on people to do what that software still cannot,” Jayakrishnan said. “We built Freehand to bridge that gap.”
