Trayd, a construction payroll platform, announced a $4.5 million equity fundraising. Suffolk Technologies (the VC affiliate of Suffolk Construction) led the seed round with support from Bloomberg Beta and Y Combinator.
This funding reflects strong early adoption and growing demand among key customers. And this new funding will fuel product development, team expansion, and scaling efforts to meet the market demand.
While construction is a giant industry, trade contractors in the US still depend on paper sign-in sheets, Excel for scheduling, and multiple siloed platforms for their payroll and accounting needs – all of which fail to solve the complex challenges of builders today. And Trayd’s comprehensive platform directly addresses those challenges by automating tedious everyday tasks like employee onboarding, field time card capture, pay rate overrides – and centralizing key project and labor data. The all-in-one back-office platform offers payroll, scheduling, field tracking, HR, and accounting tools – tapping into a $10+ billion annual market opportunity.
Born into a construction family, Berger noticed back-office inefficiencies firsthand while working in her father’s office. Seeing the impacts of multiple systems leading to errors across necessities like payroll, Berger designed Trayd to simplify payroll processing and compliance management for the next generation of specialty contractors.
Built by co-founder and CTO Cara Kessler, Trayd addresses the complexities of union payrolls and certified payroll reporting, allowing contractors of all sizes to participate in larger, federally-funded projects. And the company has already gained impressive traction with union customers like Century Drywall, a 600-person drywall contractor serving the Northeast United States. Plus, the platform’s robust fringe benefit calculations and prevailing wage overrides make it an effective solution for non-union contractors. Trayd simplifies the operations of managing a high-turnover workforce, creating more opportunities in a high-pressure, low-margin industry.
KEY QUOTES:
“We are thrilled to announce this milestone. Trayd is the first platform of its kind, and every day, I have the privilege of watching contractors finally see a purpose-built software made just for them. For these builders, Trayd removes duplicative systems, and enables them to focus on the job at hand, all while staying compliant. As we propel forward, listening to our customers and solving their most pressing problems will continue to be central to our mission.”
- Co-founder and CEO Anna Berger
“When our trade partners operate at peak efficiency, it elevates the entire construction ecosystem and enables our project teams to build better and smarter. We are thrilled to welcome Trayd to the Suffolk Technologies portfolio and support their innovative approach to streamlining payroll compliance and back office operations for specialty contractors. Trayd is helping to advance the construction industry and empower its critical players to focus on what they do best — building the future.”
- John Fish, Chairman and CEO of Suffolk
