Overview
One-liner
Payroll for performance
Investors
Y Combinator
Funding round
Winter 2026 ($500K standard)
Funding notes
YC launch page and website confirm W26 batch. 'Backed by Y Combinator' stated on product page. No additional investors found. $380K+ in creator payouts in first month (traction signal).
Why it's interesting
Market trends shaping Grade
- 1Stablecoin settlement moving from crypto-native to mainstream B2B
- 2Account-to-account (Pay by Bank) gaining share from cards in checkout
- 3Embedded payments becoming table stakes for vertical SaaS
- 4Cross-border B2B the largest underserved opportunity, $250T flow
- 5Fraud and KYC tooling rebuilt for AI-generated identity attacks
- 6Card-issuing platforms consolidating; Marqeta vs. Stripe vs. challengers
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