At Construct, we back ambitious founders reimagining how foundational industries operate. Few systems are as critical — or as overlooked — as the $86 trillion U.S. bank payments infrastructure. That’s why we’re proud to lead the latest investment in GrailPay — partnering with a team building the intelligent risk and data layer for bank payments.
The Opportunity Hiding in Plain Sight
Over 85% of U.S. B2B payments flow through bank rails like ACH and checks — not cards. ACH is cheap compared to card networks, which charge 2–3% in fees. But it’s also slow, error-prone, and vulnerable to fraud. An estimated $100 billion in ACH returns happen each year, and NACHA is tightening rules to keep up.
At Construct, we see this every day. Millions of businesses — from roofers to freight brokers to manufacturers — rely on ACH because it’s affordable. But they’re stuck with rails that weren’t built for modern B2B commerce.
In short: the backbone of B2B payments is outdated, opaque, and fundamentally trustless.
A Trust Layer for Bank Payments
Rather than reinventing the rails, GrailPay is building the modern trust network for how money already moves. Think of it as a “Visa for bank payments” — verifying, underwriting, and securing transactions at the infrastructure level.
What makes GrailPay powerful is its ability to underwrite every bank transaction in real time — combining identity, fraud, credit, and transaction data into a unified risk engine. By aggregating vast amounts of data on bank payments and building a network-effects flywheel, GrailPay is going to market with a bold vision: by giving companies the tools to underwrite bank payments, reduce fraud, and accelerate settlement, they are laying lay the foundation for the next major payments network.
Built for Fintechs, Platforms, and Payment Originators
GrailPay now leads the market with Account Intelligence and Transaction Intelligence — solutions that serve a wide array of originators of ACH payments:
- Risk tool providers embedding bank account data into onboarding and monitoring flows
- Embedded fintechs and merchant acquirers seeking better risk decisioning
- AP/AR and payout platforms combating counterparty fraud and settlement delays
- Banking-as-a-service platforms reducing ACH return rates for their fintech clients
- And more
By solving for the specific risks of ACH — like debit blocks, bad actors, and mismatched credentials — GrailPay unlocks a wedge into accounts, platforms, and flows where trust is a gating factor to scale.
Infrastructure for Safer, Smarter ACH Payments
GrailPay is quickly becoming the go-to infrastructure layer for ACH risk and reliability:
- Account Intelligence: Market-leading validation & data product for reducing counterparty risk with as little data as an account & routing number
- Transaction Intelligence: Risk scores for ACH debits based on transaction-level and entity-level data
- Guaranteed ACH: Real-time settlement and risk offload for high-value transactions
- Open Banking: Higher-quality onboarding and identity verification for fintechs
- White-labeled ACH Processing: Infrastructure for those needing speed and data access to improve their stack
This modular approach lets GrailPay embed where trust is missing — and scale where speed and reliability matter most.
Why We’re Excited
ACH is an $86T system stitched together by decades-old infrastructure. GrailPay isn’t trying to replace it — they’re making it intelligent, safe, and fast.
They’re also playing to win. By focusing first on the risk layer, GrailPay is positioning itself as the default trust network for bank payments — with the potential to power trillions in future money movement.
We’re proud to back Will and the GrailPay team, alongside Commerce Ventures, Noemis Ventures, Broadhaven Ventures, Soma Capital, and an incredible group of operators and angels.
If you’re building financial infrastructure, underwriting ACH at scale, or fighting to reduce fraud and returns, we’d love to connect you with the GrailPay team. Learn more at grailpay.com.