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Trayd

YC S23

New York City, US · Founded 2022 · 34 employees · Hiring · 5 known investors

Trayd provides payroll software designed for contractors and construction trades, automating labor hour tracking, wage rate capture, and worker classification to generate certified payroll reports and ensure regulatory compliance.

Also known as Build Trayd · Trayd

Founders & leadership· Y Combinator alumni (S23)

Trayd was founded in 2022 by Anna Berger and Cara Kessler.

ABAnna Berger
Anna Bergerin𝕏FounderAnna Berger is a founder who has started multiple companies and has experience in product development and growth.
CKCara Kessler
Cara KesslerinFounder

Investors · 5

Funding

SEC filings, press & company announcements

$10M disclosed across 1 of 3 rounds · 2025–2026

Source: company announcements and press reports — follow each round's link for the claim.

Company profile

researched Aug 2026

Trayd develops payroll and workforce software for construction trade contractors, with an emphasis on regulatory compliance. The platform captures labor hours, wage rates and worker classifications in the field and channels them into certified payroll reports, which the company says can be produced in three clicks. Compliance-oriented modules cover automated certified payroll, union management and real-time job costing, positioned around requirements such as prevailing wage and Davis-Bacon rules and the risk of Department of Labor penalties.

Beyond payroll, the product suite spans HR and people management (onboarding, benefits, approvals, forms), scheduling and dispatch (crew scheduling, crew communication, equipment scheduling), and field and labor tracking through a worker app, a foreman app and daily shift reports, plus a reporting layer. The company markets transparent pricing with no hidden fees and includes compliance reporting at no additional cost. Customer support is provided by an in-house, US-based bilingual (English and Spanish) team with dedicated account management.

Business model

Software product sold to construction contractors, with the company emphasizing transparent, upfront pricing covering the complete suite of tools required to run compliant payroll, and compliance reporting included rather than charged as an add-on [0].

Traction

The website states the product is used by hundreds of contractors across trades. Customer testimonials cite growth from 3 to 42 employees at Titan Structural Group and an over-80% reduction in administrative work at Tompkins Excavating, and a case study describes a contractor reducing payroll to a two-hour task [0].

Latest developments

A February 2025 feature reported that Trayd planned to launch new features and expand its team. The company was included in a Top 50 ConTech Startups 2026 listing published January 2026, and was featured in the Verticalized newsletter in December 2025 [0].

Full profile — market position, technology, go-to-market, geography

Market position

Positions itself as a compliance-first construction payroll platform for trade contractors, an alternative to horizontal payroll providers and construction accounting suites [0].

Trayd positions itself against general payroll and construction accounting incumbents such as ADP and Sage, citing paper timecard delays, hidden or per-report fees for certified payroll, lack of union wage card support, manual entry risk and charges for custom reports, versus its own purpose-built support for trade contractors, union and prevailing wage, daily automated compliance and no-cost compliance reporting [0].

Technology

Field-level capture of labor hours, wage rates and worker classifications through worker and foreman mobile apps and daily shift reports, feeding automated certified payroll generation, union wage handling, job costing and reporting [0].

Go-to-market

Direct sales via demo requests on the company website, supported by content marketing (blog guides on certified payroll and prevailing wage), customer case studies, events, webinars and a community program [0].

Trade contractors in construction, including firms performing union and prevailing-wage work; the site references use by hundreds of contractors across trades and cites customers such as Titan Structural Group, M. O'Connor Contracting and Tompkins Excavating [0].

Geography

United States; support is described as 100% USA-based with an in-house bilingual English and Spanish team [0].

Compiled by commissioned research from 1 cited public sources — announcements, filings, and press listed under research sources below.

Key figures

latest reported
Contractors using the platformJan 2026Hundreds of contractors across trades

Company-reported or press-reported figures, each dated to when it was claimed — not independently audited.

Images

Trayd photoTrayd photo

Competitors · 6

by search overlap
Miter36 shared keywordsMiter provides a platform that connects people, projects, and payments in the construction industry to improve coordination and efficiency. The platform serves construction companies and related stakeholders working on residential, infrastructure, energy, and public projects.
Workyard27 shared keywordsWorkyard is a workforce management platform that uses GPS to track field crews, track labor costs, manage scheduling, and support payroll accuracy and compliance. It serves contractors and companies with distributed field workforces, offering native integrations and a developer API.
LumberFi25 shared keywordsLumber offers an AI-based workforce management platform for construction companies, covering certified payroll, prevailing wage and union compliance, hiring and credential tracking, and real-time field operations visibility. It integrates with existing ERP and accounting tools and includes AI agents for union rate validation, prevailing wage/CPR generation, and matching crew work to federal tax credits.
Trimble25 shared keywordsTrimble is a global technology company that provides connected hardware and software for precise positioning, 3D modeling, and data analytics. It serves industries including construction, geospatial, and transportation, supporting work such as building design and construction, infrastructure maintenance, supply chain optimization, and mapping.
ADP23 shared keywordsADP provides cloud-based human capital management solutions that integrate payroll, HR, talent management, time and attendance, tax, and benefits administration for businesses globally. The company serves as a comprehensive provider of HCM software and business outsourcing services with analytics and compliance expertise.
Dapt21 shared keywordsDAPT provides software that automatically maps labor, burden, and material costs to jobs across payroll and accounting systems, and generates prevailing wage compliance (WH-347, state forms, LCPtracker-ready output), fringe and dues reporting, workers comp reports, and GL journal postings. It targets construction and contracting businesses that need job costing, payroll reconciliation, and prevailing wage compliance.

Companies competing with Trayd for the same Google search keywords, organic and paid, via search-intersection analysis.

Timeline · 1

launches, deals, and filings
Jan 2026
Named in Top 50 ConTech Startups 2026 list

Trayd was featured in a Top 50 ConTech Startups 2026 article dated January 29, 2026.

source ↗

Dated company events from announcements, filings, and press; legal rows summarize public dockets and regulator releases.

In the news

Research sources · 1

primary sources listed
  • Traydbuildtrayd.com · web

1 public sources were cited for this profile; the first-party ones are listed here.

Frequently asked questions

What does Trayd do?
Trayd is a construction payroll and compliance platform for trade contractors managing union and prevailing-wage work.
Who founded Trayd?
Trayd was founded by Anna Berger, Cara Kessler in 2022.
Who are Trayd's investors?
Trayd's investors include Suffolk Technologies, White Star Capital, Y Combinator, 468 Capital, Bloomberg Beta.
How much funding has Trayd raised?
Trayd has disclosed $10M raised across 1 of its 3 known rounds.
Where is Trayd headquartered?
Trayd is headquartered in New York City, US.