Construction Tech Trayd Lands $10M Series A as Y Combinator Doubles Down on Trade Payroll
Specialty trade contractors outnumber general contractors 400 to 1 in the U.S. construction market, which generates $2 trillion annually, yet legacy technology has been built primarily for GCs. That imbalance is the exact problem construction tech Trayd was built to fix — and on March 25, 2026, investors confirmed the bet with a $10 million Series A led by White Star Capital. Y Combinator, already a backer from the seed stage, doubled down with a follow-on investment. Suffolk Technologies reinvested, and RXR — the New York-based real estate and technology firm — joined as a new strategic partner. The round closed in just three weeks. Total funding now stands at $15 million.
With specialty trade contractors outnumbering general contractors 400 to 1 yet historically overlooked by construction technology, Trayd’s platform positions the company to capture a significant share of the $260 billion in annual payroll that moves through the construction ecosystem. Construction tech Trayd was built natively for the complexity that breaks every other system.
Why Construction Tech Trayd Is Solving a $2 Trillion Industry Problem
Only 17% of construction subcontractors currently use digital tools to manage their back offices. Most still run on paper timesheets, spreadsheets, and disconnected platforms stitched together with institutional memory. The real cost shows up in specialty trade contractor payroll.
Contractors spend an average of 14 hours every week processing payroll, navigating a maze of wage rules, tax requirements, and compliance obligations — a slow, error-prone process in an industry where margins are already tight. Short sentences don’t capture the full scope. A single worker might earn four different pay rates in a single day depending on the specific trade task, the project scope, and the jurisdiction. Generic platforms simply cannot handle that variability.
The Trayd platform factors in wage calculations by trade type, state versus federal or private project scope, multi-state tax obligations, tax adjustments, and compliance reporting — and since launch, has reduced average weekly payroll processing time from 14 hours to 27 minutes, returning almost a full two days of labor to back-office teams. That is not a marginal improvement. That is a 31× productivity gain — and it is why construction tech Trayd grew revenue 600% year over year since founding.
The Founders Behind Construction Tech Trayd: Anna Berger and Cara Kessler
Anna Berger is a second-time founder who grew up in a New York construction family, watching contractors spend hours every week trying to make payroll systems fit the realities of their jobs. Before Trayd, she co-founded Curtn, a consumer social platform backed by Sam Altman. She returned to construction with a clear thesis: the back office operating system that specialty contractors needed had never been built.
Her co-founder and CTO, Cara Kessler, spent a decade leading web platform engineering at LinkedIn before joining Anna to build what they describe as infrastructure-grade software for one of the economy’s most complex labor environments. Together, they are building in one of the most male-dominated industries in the U.S., bringing a fresh perspective to a long-overlooked segment.
Eddie Lee, general partner at White Star Capital, described Berger and Kessler as “a rare combination,” noting that Anna’s background and family ties allow her to understand the unique pain points contractors face from the inside, while Cara brings the technical depth to build mission-critical systems without sacrificing product simplicity. Lee added that the platform’s clean data architecture positions Trayd “to become a strong foundation for AI in the construction industry over time.”
From Seed to Series A: Traction That Speaks for Itself
Trayd’s $4.5 million seed round, announced in early 2025, was led by Suffolk Technologies — the venture capital affiliate of Suffolk Construction — with additional support from Bloomberg Beta and Y Combinator. That capital funded core product development and early customer scaling. The Series A followed quickly.
Since launch, Trayd has reduced average weekly payroll processing time from 14 hours to 27 minutes, grown its team from six to 24, and achieved over 600% year-over-year revenue growth. Several hundred contractors use Trayd weekly, including United General Contractors, Wohl Diversified Services, and Titan Structural Group. One field operations manager at United General Contractors reported that Trayd consolidated three separate platforms into one, enabling 300% growth in field staff with zero added administrative cost.
The Series A funding will be used to aggressively scale Trayd’s engineering and sales teams and accelerate national expansion into key construction markets, including California, Texas, Florida, and Illinois.
Construction Workforce Management Tools in a Tightening Compliance Environment
Timing is everything here. The Department of Labor updated regulations under the Davis-Bacon and Related Acts through a final rule that represents the first comprehensive regulatory review in nearly 40 years, effective October 23, 2023. The overhaul increased civil penalties to $13,508 per violation and introduced a newly updated certified payroll reporting form.
For contractors who fall out of compliance, the consequences include withheld payments, back-wage liability, and debarment from future federal work. Construction workforce management tools that automate certified payroll reporting automation are no longer a productivity enhancement — they are a compliance requirement for any contractor pursuing public or federally funded projects.
The workforce shortage intensifies that pressure. According to a 2025 survey by the Associated General Contractors of America, 92% of construction firms report having a hard time finding workers to hire, and 45% say labor shortages are causing project delays. The new worker demand estimate drops to 350,000 in 2026 from 439,000 in 2025, though experts caution that figure may prove conservative. In a market this tight, construction workforce management tools that reclaim nearly two full working days per contractor per week are not optional — they are competitive leverage.
How Construction Tech Trayd Works: A Back Office Operating System for the Trades
Construction tech Trayd is best understood as a back office operating system purpose-built for the operational realities of specialty contracting. Rather than offering a single feature, the platform consolidates every function that contractors currently manage across disconnected systems — or on paper.
Here is what the platform covers:
- Payroll automation: Handles union logic, prevailing wage calculations, multi-state tax obligations, and flexible pay schedules — including same-day pay access — across workers earning multiple rates in a single shift.
- Certified payroll reporting automation: Generates the compliance documentation required for government and prevailing wage projects automatically, directly addressing the tightened requirements introduced by the 2023 Davis-Bacon regulatory overhaul.
- Labor cost tracking software: Provides real-time job costing at the day level. Since labor represents over 70% of all back-office costs for trade contractors, quality labor cost tracking software is a direct instrument of margin management — not a reporting afterthought.
- HR and scheduling: Covers employee onboarding, PTO tracking, geolocation-based clock-ins, shift updates, and crew management across multiple job sites simultaneously.
- Field tracking: Workers and foremen log daily shift activity in real time, creating a clean, auditable record that flows directly into payroll calculations.
Now available to specialty trade contractors across the U.S., the platform integrates with major accounting and ERP systems, positioning itself as the central operating layer for construction back offices. That integration layer is what makes it a genuine back office operating system rather than just another point solution.
Construction Compliance Technology and the Road Ahead
Over the next three to five years, Trayd is focused on scaling its repeatable playbook nationwide to become the definitive end-to-end back office operating system for the trades. The company started in New York and the broader Northeast — where union density and regulatory complexity are highest — and is now pushing into its largest national expansion phase.
The competitive set includes legacy providers like ADP and Paychex as well as newer construction-focused entrants like Miter and Lumber. “The difference is that most of these systems weren’t built for the complexity of specialty trades,” Berger has explained. That architectural difference is where construction compliance technology built from the ground up diverges meaningfully from retrofitted general payroll software.
Beyond geographic scale, the data layer matters significantly. White Star Capital has explicitly highlighted that the platform’s clean data structure positions Trayd to build AI-powered construction compliance technology on top of its existing infrastructure. Structured shift logs, wage classifications, and compliance records flowing through a single system create the foundation for predictive labor cost modeling and intelligent compliance automation — features that remain nascent but are clearly part of the long-term roadmap.
The Bottom Line for Specialty Contractors
Construction tech Trayd’s $10 million Series A is more than a funding announcement. It confirms that the most underserved segment of a $2 trillion industry is finally getting software that matches its actual operational complexity. The platform delivers 31× payroll productivity gains, automates certified payroll reporting, integrates labor cost tracking software with field operations, and wraps all of it in construction compliance technology built for the modern regulatory environment.
For any specialty contractor still spending 14 hours per week manually processing specialty trade contractor payroll, the math is not complicated. Visit buildtrayd.com and calculate how much of your back-office week you could recover.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is construction tech Trayd and what problem does it solve?
Trayd is a NYC-based construction payroll and compliance platform for specialty trade contractors, offering payroll, HR, scheduling, and field tracking tools through a single unified system. It solves the back-office complexity unique to specialty trades — union rules, prevailing wage calculations, and multi-state tax obligations — that generic payroll software cannot handle.
Who founded Trayd?
Trayd was founded in 2021 by CEO Anna Berger, a second-time founder who grew up in a construction family, and CTO Cara Kessler, who spent 10 years at LinkedIn. Both are based in New York City.
How much has Trayd raised in total, and who are its investors?
The $10M Series A was led by White Star Capital and brings total funding to $15M, with follow-on investments from Suffolk Technologies and Y Combinator, and a new strategic investment from RXR.
What productivity gains does Trayd deliver?
What takes most contractors 14 hours of manual payroll processing each week now takes 27 minutes on Trayd. That is a 31× improvement, equivalent to recovering nearly two full working days every week.
Who are Trayd’s current customers?
Several hundred contractors use Trayd weekly, including United General Contractors, Wohl Diversified Services, and Titan Structural Group.The platform processes tens of millions of dollars in payroll every week across those customers.
How does Trayd handle certified payroll reporting requirements under the Davis-Bacon Act?
Trayd serves the complexities of union payrolls and certified payroll reporting, allowing contractors of all sizes to participate in larger, federally-funded projects.The platform automates the documentation workflow required under the 2023 Davis-Bacon regulatory update, eliminating the manual assembly process that historically made federal project compliance burdensome for smaller specialty contractors.
Where is Trayd expanding next?
The Series A funding will accelerate the platform’s national expansion into key construction markets, including California, Texas, Florida, and Illinois.The company started in the Northeast — where union density and regulatory complexity are highest — and is now scaling the same model to major construction hubs across the country.
