Battery Ventures and NewRoad Capital Partners co-led the investment, with participation from Nexus Venture Partners and PSP Growth, the firm led by former US Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker. While Freehand declined to disclose its current valuation or the specific financial structure of the deal, the capital injection marks a significant push to scale its procure-to-pay technology. Dharmesh Thakker, a general partner at Battery Ventures, will join the board as part of the agreement.
The startup’s platform utilizes a proprietary "Category Context Graph" to link transaction records with email and document history. This allows the system to autonomously reconcile payments and identify overbilling without human intervention. Unilever, one of the company's early adopters, has transitioned from using software as a mere support tool to relying on Freehand agents to actively execute supply-chain functions. According to company data, customers have achieved a 70% reduction in procure-to-pay cycle times, with some recovering 5% to 10% of spending in complex categories.
Freehand is positioning its technology as a direct replacement for both legacy software and human-staffed back-office teams. With US companies spending over $20 trillion annually on materials and logistics, the startup believes rising costs from tariffs and shifting trade policies will accelerate the shift toward total automation. The new funding will allow the firm to expand its agentic capabilities beyond invoice management into broader supply-chain operations, setting the stage for competition with established enterprise software providers and traditional outsourcing firms.
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