For years, enterprises have tried to modernize supply chains by digitizing transactions. But when we looked closely across global shippers and carriers, one thing became obvious:
The hardest problems were never transactional.
They were financial, fragmented, and freight-led.
Freight spend sits at the intersection of sourcing, execution, and finance. It touches contracts, rates, accessorials, service failures, disputes, working capital, and trust between parties. And it’s one of the few spend categories where volatility is the norm — not the exception.
Fuel swings. Capacity tightens. Routes change overnight. Disruptions ripple instantly into accounts payable and accounts receivable.
That’s why, as we’ve worked with some of the world’s most complex supply chains, we’ve consistently seen the same pattern:
Freight is the best place to start if you want AI to actually deliver enterprise value.
For shippers, freight is often the largest variable cost on the P&L — and the least understood. Invoice accuracy issues, delayed accruals, and post-facto audits mean finance is always looking backward. During inflationary cycles or disruptions, this lag turns into margin risk.
For carriers and logistics providers, the problem flips. Cash gets trapped in disputes. Days Sales Outstanding stretch. Revenue recognition becomes messy when execution data, contracts, and billing don’t line up.
This is where Freehand was born.
We didn’t start with generic spend management. We started with freight because it forces AI to operate in the real world — where data is imperfect, rules change, and decisions matter.
Freehand learns every contract, shipment, rate card, invoice, and exception. It connects operational truth to financial truth — automatically. Not weeks later. Not after manual reconciliation. In real time.
The result isn’t just cost savings.
It’s control during uncertainty.
When markets tighten, enterprises don’t need more reports. They need confidence:
What should we pay?
What should we challenge?
Where is value leaking — and why?
Freight spend is where AI earns trust because the stakes are high and the signal is clear. If it can work here, it can work anywhere.
We believe the future of supply chain spend management isn’t about tools.
It’s about intelligent autonomy — AI that acts with financial discipline, operational awareness, and explainable judgment.
That future starts with freight.
And Freehand is building it.
— Nitin Jayakrishnan
Co-founder & CEO, Freehand