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Pillar, a platform that helps commodity-driven businesses<\/a> (like those in metals, food, and airline companies) manage financial risk, announced Tuesday a $20 million seed round<\/a> led by Andreessen Horowitz.\u00a0<\/p>\n Others in the seed round include Crucible Capital, Gallery Ventures, and Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi. The company has raised $23 million to date. <\/p>\n Pillar, founded in 2023, automates hedging processes for such businesses. Hedging is when a company places a trade that can offset or cancel out losses from other priced trades. Geopolitics has not been kind to the commodities market, which has seen much volatility in the past year.\u00a0<\/p>\n Harsha Ramesh, the company\u2019s co-founder and CEO (founded alongside Chinmay Deshpande, the company\u2019s CTO), said the company uses AI to ingest and parse data from client contracts, cash flows, inventories, ERP software, spreadsheets, and even WhatsApp messages to \u201ccontinuously analyze exposure across commodities, FX, and freight.\u201d<\/p>\n It can then build and manage a hedge portfolio for its clients, and adjust positions automatically based on \u201cmarket conditions, volatility, and the client\u2019s risk tolerance,\u201d Ramesh continued. The platform executes trades and continuously monitors risk and exposure, turning hedging from a \u201cstatic, periodic decision to a continuous, autonomous system,\u201d Ramesh said.<\/p>\n Pillar\u2019s clients include Shibuya Sakura Industries, a trading firm that buys and sells commodities like metals; the recyclable materials company Sigma Recycling; and United Metals Solution Group, which also recycles and trades metals.\u00a0<\/p>\n Ramesh was once a macro trader, managing large derivative trading books and working with some of the largest companies in the world as they sought to hedge foreign exchange rates and interest rate exposure, he said. \u201cI also spent time at a medium-sized physical business in import-export,\u201d he recalled.\u00a0<\/p>\n Techcrunch event<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSan Francisco, CA<\/span> \u201cWhat stood out was that sophisticated institutions had access to tools, infrastructure, and talent, while the actual producers, importers, and manufacturers driving global trade had little to no access to this,\u201d he said. \u201cRisk management was treated as a luxury, despite being essential.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Pillar hopes to offer sophisticated, institutional-grade tools to small and medium-sized enterprises. \u201cOur goal is to make hedging as accessible and ubiquitous as payments or accounting software,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Others in this business include the legacy desks at big banks and the commodity risk platforms like Topaz and RadarRadar. <\/p>\n Ramesh said humans are still in the loop in some ways at Pillar, handling \u201capprovals, oversight, and strategic decisions.\u201d Humans also help with more \u201ccomplex situations\u201d \u2014 like large transactions, where a human team will mix their judgment with the machine\u2019s execution.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tOctober 13-15, 2026<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n