Trayd
YC S23New York City, US · Founded 2022 · 34 employees · Hiring · 13 known investors
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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 Trayd, TRAYD · Build Trayd · Trayd
Founders & leadership· Y Combinator alumni (S23)
Trayd was founded in 2022 by Anna Berger and Cara Kessler.

Investors · 13
How we know: the VCSheet dataset · github.com · open dataset · 5k.vc investor directory · Y Combinator's founder network · Not right? Tell us
How we know: Olive Hill Ventures's portfolio page · Y Combinator's founder network · Not right? Tell us
How we know: Y Combinator's founder network · pioneerfund.vc · open dataset · 5k.vc investor directory · Not right? Tell us
How we know: Suffolk Technologies's portfolio page · funding news · Y Combinator's founder network · Not right? Tell us
How we know: a partner's Signal profile · open dataset · 5k.vc investor directory · Y Combinator's founder network · Not right? Tell us
How we know: the Y Combinator directory · funding news · open dataset · 5k.vc investor directory · Not right? Tell us
How we know: the VCSheet dataset · Y Combinator's founder network · Not right? Tell us
How we know: Y Combinator's founder network · Not right? Tell us
How we know: a partner's Signal profile · Not right? Tell us
How we know: Y Combinator's founder network · Not right? Tell us
How we know: Y Combinator's founder network · Not right? Tell us
How we know: Y Combinator's founder network · Not right? Tell us
How we know: Y Combinator's founder network · Not right? Tell us
Funding
SEC filings, press & company announcements$20M disclosed across 2 of 3 rounds · 2025–2026
- $10MSeries AMar 2026Source ↗
- $10MraisedMar 2026 · 3 sourcesSource ↗
- Undisclosed amountSeedFeb 2025Source ↗
Source: company announcements and press reports — follow each round's link for the claim.
Company profile
researched Aug 2026Trayd 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 reportedCompany-reported or press-reported figures, each dated to when it was claimed — not independently audited.
Related companies · 10
Companies working in the same space as Trayd.
Timeline · 1
launches, deals, and filingsTrayd was featured in a Top 50 ConTech Startups 2026 article dated January 29, 2026.
Dated company events from announcements, filings, and press; legal rows summarize public dockets and regulator releases.
Legal entities · 1
corporate structureIn 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 Bloomberg Beta, Olive Hill Ventures, Pioneer, Suffolk Technologies, White Star Capital, Y Combinator, 468 Capital, Andreessen Horowitz and 5 more.
- How much funding has Trayd raised?
- Trayd has disclosed $20M raised across 2 of its 3 known rounds.
- Where is Trayd headquartered?
- Trayd is headquartered in New York City, US.



















