Pillar is a New York-based fintech building an AI-powered hedging platform for businesses exposed to physical commodity and currency risk. Founded in 2023 by CEO Harsha Ramesh, a former macro derivatives trader, and CTO Chinmay Deshpande, the company targets metals recyclers, food importers, airlines, and other mid-market firms that historically lacked the tooling and dedicated treasury teams used by large institutional traders.
The platform ingests data from contracts, ERP systems, cash flow statements, inventories, spreadsheets, and even WhatsApp messages, then continuously analyzes exposure across commodities, FX, and freight. Pillar supports transaction-linked hedges that tie directly to specific deals and adjust automatically as quantities change, with execution available down to 1 metric tonne increments. Users can trigger workflows in natural language through a web app or WhatsApp and execute trades in a single click.
In April 2026 Pillar raised a $20 million seed round led by Andreessen Horowitz, with participation from Crucible Capital, Gallery Ventures, and Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi. The round brought total funding to approximately $23 million. Early customers include Shibuya Sakura Industries, Sigma Recycling, and United Metal Solutions Group.
Pillar positions itself as a category builder for AI-native treasury operations in physical commodity markets, where most workflows still depend on phone calls, spreadsheets, and bespoke broker relationships. The company is hiring across engineering and go-to-market roles as it scales coverage of additional commodity verticals and geographies.