Trayd, the pioneering construction technology startup revolutionizing back-office operations for the specialized trade industry, has successfully closed a $10 million Series A funding round, an achievement exclusively revealed to Crunchbase News. This significant capital injection, secured in a remarkably swift three weeks, underscores immense investor confidence in Trayd’s innovative platform and its mission to modernize a historically underserved sector. The round was spearheaded by global venture capital firm White Star Capital, known for its strategic investments in scaling technology companies, and notably included robust participation from existing powerhouse backers Y Combinator and Suffolk Technologies, signifying a powerful vote of continued confidence. Adding further strategic depth, RXR Realty, a prominent real estate and technology investment firm, joined as a new investor, bringing Trayd’s total funding to an impressive $17 million. This swift and substantial raise positions the New York-based company for accelerated growth and expansion, enabling it to further enhance its product offerings and extend its market reach across the nation.

At the heart of Trayd’s genesis lies a deeply personal understanding of the construction industry’s systemic inefficiencies. Co-founder and CEO Anna Berger’s upbringing within a New York construction family provided her with an intimate, firsthand perspective of the daily operational struggles. She witnessed her father grapple with the razor-thin margins and Byzantine compliance requirements that characterize the industry, observing the immense pressure these complexities placed on his business. “I saw firsthand the operational strain that comes with juggling union rules, multistate labor laws, and endless manual back-office processes,” Berger vividly recalls, highlighting the deeply rooted pain points that sparked her entrepreneurial vision. This lived experience became the bedrock of Trayd’s mission: to alleviate these burdens through intelligent automation. Recognizing the profound need for a specialized solution, Berger teamed up with Cara Kessler in 2021, Trayd’s co-founder and CTO. Kessler brought a decade of invaluable technical leadership from her tenure as LinkedIn’s web platform lead, endowing Trayd with the engineering prowess to build a robust, scalable, and user-friendly operating system capable of tackling construction’s unique challenges.

Trayd’s core focus is on specialty trade contractors, a crucial yet often overlooked segment of the construction ecosystem. For the unacquainted, these are the businesses that deploy skilled workers directly to job sites to perform the actual physical building work. This encompasses a vast array of specialized crafts, from concrete crews, electricians, and plumbers to ironworkers, painters, and fireproofing specialists. They are distinct from general contractors, who primarily manage and coordinate overall projects but typically do not engage in the hands-on trade work themselves. Despite their critical role and numerical superiority compared to general contractors, specialty trades have historically been underserved by existing construction technology solutions. Trayd steps into this void by automating a comprehensive suite of back-office functions tailored precisely for these contractors, including payroll, HR, compliance management, and intricate labor cost tracking. The platform’s key benefits include providing real-time visibility into the dynamic costs of labor, equipment, and materials, empowering contractors with unprecedented financial clarity and control.

The startup’s promise is to dramatically cut the time specialty trade contractors spend on their weekly payroll and compliance processes, which are notoriously time-consuming and prone to error. “What used to take 14 hours of manual work can now be done in under 30 minutes,” Berger proudly told Crunchbase News, illustrating the profound productivity gains Trayd delivers. This efficiency is paramount in an industry where time is money and margins are tight. Berger firmly believes that while the construction tech market has seen significant growth, the majority of innovation has historically catered to general contractors, leaving specialty trades to contend with generic tools ill-suited to their unique demands. This strategic focus on the specialty trades represents a significant market opportunity, given their sheer volume and the complexity of their operational needs.

Trayd’s closest competitors include legacy payroll giants like ADP and Paychex, alongside newer construction-focused software providers such as Miter and Lumber. However, Berger asserts that Trayd’s fundamental differentiation lies in its purpose-built architecture. “The difference is that most of these systems weren’t built for the complexity of specialty trades,” Berger explains. “Trayd was.” This distinction is critical when considering the intricate world of construction compensation. Berger elaborates that in this industry, compensation is uniquely complex, with a single worker potentially earning four different pay rates in a single day, depending on the specific trade task, the project scope, and the prevailing jurisdiction. Generic payroll platforms simply cannot handle this constant rate variability and the associated compliance requirements.

The traditional workflow for payroll administrators in construction is a labyrinth of manual tasks. It often begins with stacks of paper timesheets or phoned-in hours from various job sites. These raw data points then have to be manually keyed into Excel spreadsheets, where pay rates are painstakingly calculated by hand, factoring in a multitude of variables: union rules, prevailing wage requirements, state-by-state taxes, and benefits. After this arduous calculation, administrators might then have to cross-check the spreadsheet math before manually double-entering the finalized numbers into a generic payroll system, and then often a third time into their accounting software. This multi-step, manual process is not only incredibly time-consuming but also highly susceptible to human error, leading to costly mistakes, compliance issues, and potential disputes.

Trayd dramatically streamlines this entire process. According to Berger, the platform reduces the time required for these tasks by capturing time data directly from the field—likely through mobile applications or integrated devices—and automatically calculating the correct variable pay rates, union deductions, and multistate taxes. This automation ensures accuracy and significantly accelerates the payroll cycle. “Unlike salaried workforces, construction workers can earn multiple different rates in a single day depending on the trade, the project, and whether the work falls under prevailing wage, state or union requirements,” she emphasizes. “Trayd was designed from day one to handle that complexity.” This core capability is what sets Trayd apart, offering a tailored solution where generic systems fail.

The product’s effectiveness is clearly resonating within the industry, as evidenced by Trayd’s impressive growth metrics. The company has achieved over 600% year-over-year revenue growth and is currently processing tens of millions of payroll dollars each week, showcasing its rapid adoption and the substantial scale of its operations. Several hundred contractors are now relying on Trayd weekly to manage their back-office needs, with notable customers including United General Contractors, Wohl Diversified Services, and Titan Structural Group, indicating a broad appeal across various specialty trade segments. Trayd operates on a scalable SaaS (Software as a Service) model, with pricing intelligently tied to the number of workers processed through payroll, ensuring that the solution remains accessible and cost-effective for businesses of all sizes while aligning with Trayd’s growth.

Initially, Trayd strategically launched and focused its efforts in New York and the broader Northeast region, areas characterized by high union density and significant regulatory complexity. This concentrated approach allowed the company to refine its platform in the most demanding environments, building a robust solution before embarking on a national expansion. With its recent funding, Trayd is now actively expanding its footprint across the United States, bringing its specialized operating system to contractors nationwide. The company currently boasts a dedicated team of about two dozen employees, a number expected to grow significantly as it scales its operations, sales, and customer support to meet increasing demand.

Anna Berger’s entrepreneurial journey is also notable for her previous venture, Curtn, a consumer social platform that was backed by tech luminary Sam Altman, though it is now defunct. This prior experience, despite its outcome, undoubtedly provided invaluable lessons in startup development and scaling. Berger openly acknowledges the unique challenges faced by female founders in the overwhelmingly male-dominated construction industry. “As women building in construction — where we’re outnumbered 9 to 1 — the default assumption is that we’re too far removed or don’t have access to truly understand the problems on the ground. In the early years especially, there’s a ‘prove it twice’ dynamic,” she shared with Crunchbase News. “Without the benefit of the doubt, we had to earn credibility through repetition — every meeting, every deal, every product decision. We’ve had to work twice as hard to be taken seriously.” However, Berger views this pressure as a powerful advantage. “You show up more prepared, you listen more closely, and you build conviction faster. Over time, that compounds into a better product and deeper, more trusted customer relationships.” This resilience and meticulous approach are core to Trayd’s success.

Tom Solleveld, director of communications and marketing at White Star Capital, elaborated on his firm’s decision to invest, highlighting the exceptional founding team as a primary draw. He described Berger and Kessler as “a rare combination,” acknowledging their complementary skills. “Anna’s background and family ties to the space allow her to understand the unique pain points contractors face from the inside,” Solleveld wrote via email, emphasizing her profound industry insight. “Cara brings the technical depth to build mission-critical systems without sacrificing product simplicity.” Beyond the caliber of the founders, White Star Capital was also deeply impressed by Trayd’s superior product offering. “On a technical level, we were very impressed by how thoughtfully the product has been built,” Solleveld added. “We see that as a real advantage, because by structuring data cleanly at the system level, Trayd is better positioned to scale reliably and to become a strong foundation for AI in the construction industry over time.” This forward-thinking design, anticipating the integration of artificial intelligence, positions Trayd at the forefront of construction tech innovation.

Trayd’s success comes amidst a broader resurgence in venture investment in property technology (proptech) startups, which has significantly rebounded in recent years after a downturn from the pandemic peak. In 2025, startups in the sector collectively attracted approximately $10.5 billion in seed- through growth-stage financing globally, according to Crunchbase data. This represents a robust 17% increase from the $9 billion recorded in 2024, with a substantial portion of this recent investment flowing into startups that promise greater return on investment through advanced automation or artificial intelligence. Trayd’s focus on automating complex, manual processes and its foundational design for future AI integration perfectly aligns with these prevailing market trends, making it an attractive proposition for investors seeking high-impact solutions in a rapidly evolving industry. The construction industry, traditionally slower to adopt digital solutions, is now undergoing a critical transformation, driven by demands for increased efficiency, cost control, and data-driven decision-making, with Trayd poised to be a key enabler of this paradigm shift.