Dayna Grayson

Co-Founder & General Partner at construct-capital

Reviewed Updated Apr 6, 2026

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Location Washington, DC
Check Size $2M-$10M
Last Verified Investment BackOps (Series A) — Mar 12, 2026
Social @daynagrayson LinkedIn
Stage Focus
seed series-a
Sector Focus
manufacturing industrial-tech logistics supply-chain defense-tech energy automation robotics ai-robotics

Background

Dayna Grayson is Co-Founder and General Partner of Construct Capital, a Washington, DC-based early-stage venture firm focused on foundational industries 1. She co-founded Construct in 2020 with Rachel Holt, a former senior executive at Uber 2.

Grayson grew up outside of Charleston, South Carolina, and studied systems engineering at the University of Virginia, with a minor in English literature 3. She later earned an MBA from Harvard Business School, where she continues to serve as a venture partner and advisor to the MS/MBA program 34.

She began her career at Eye Response Technologies, working on gaze-tracking technology, then moved to consulting at Cap Gemini Ernst & Young 4. She subsequently led new product development at Blackbaud (NASDAQ: BLKB), managing products through their lifecycle as the company grew to over $130 million in revenue and completed a successful IPO 34.

Grayson entered venture capital at North Bridge Venture Partners in Boston around 2006, focusing on seed and early-stage digital media, consumer internet, and SaaS investments 45. She then joined New Enterprise Associates (NEA) as a partner in 2012, where she spent eight years leading investments in manufacturing, automation, and vertically integrated consumer brands 16. At NEA, she led investments in and sat on the boards of Desktop Metal, Onshape, Framebridge, Tulip, Formlabs, and Guideline 14.

Grayson is a founding member of All Raise, an organization focused on improving diversity in venture capital 4.

Stated Thesis

Construct Capital publicly describes its focus as investing in founders who apply modern technology to transform “foundational industries” – manufacturing, logistics, defense, energy, and critical infrastructure 1. The firm’s website states these sectors represent over half of U.S. GDP but have been “neglected for decades,” creating a “once-in-a-generation opportunity” 7.

Grayson has said the firm looks for “distributed budgets” and “modular, cloud-based technology that can be adopted quickly,” and will not invest in companies where they do not see “a really strong why now” 8. She has stated that the founders they are most excited about are “tech operators that grew up in the regular tech sector, and have some experience to kind of turn to the operational… industrial tech world” 8.

The firm invests at Seed and Series A with check sizes of $2M-$10M, targeting approximately 20 companies per fund in a concentrated portfolio 89. Grayson has said they “will not scale beyond probably four or five partners at most” 8.

Inferred Thesis

Based on 36 verified investments across Construct Capital’s portfolio (2020-2026):

Sector breakdown: Supply chain and logistics leads with 9 of 36 investments (25%), followed by manufacturing and production at 7 (19%), defense and aerospace at 4 (11%), energy and infrastructure at 3 (8%), AI and industrial software at 5 (14%), workforce and HR tech at 3 (8%), food and consumer at 3 (8%), and other sectors at 2 (6%).

Stage distribution: Predominantly seed, with roughly 12 of 36 investments at Seed (33%) and 17 at Series A (47%), with occasional follow-on at Series B. Average seed round size is approximately $6.5M; average Series A round size is approximately $29.6M 10.

Geographic patterns: Portfolio skews heavily toward U.S.-based companies, with concentrations in the San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles, and the Boston/Cambridge corridor. One Latin American company (Vammo) represents international exposure.

Founder profile patterns: The firm favors founders with prior operating experience at technology companies who are now applying those skills to industrial sectors. Multiple portfolio companies were founded by former Uber employees (Telegraph, Veho) or graduates of MIT and Harvard (Tulip, Verve Motion, Chef Robotics).

Co-investor patterns: Frequent co-investors include Lux Capital (Hadrian, Impulse Labs, Copia Automation), Founders Fund (Hadrian, Swarm Aero, Amca), Andreessen Horowitz (Hadrian, Nexxa, Amca), and Caffeinated Capital (Hadrian, Amca). This pattern suggests strong alignment with deep-tech and defense-oriented investors.

Notable gap vs. stated thesis: The stated thesis emphasizes “foundational industries” broadly, but the portfolio has meaningful representation in pure software companies (DBOS, Advex, Didero) and consumer-adjacent businesses (The Rounds, Folio, Impulse Labs home appliances). The portfolio is more technologically diverse than the “industrial” branding implies.

Track record at NEA: Grayson’s NEA-era investments produced significant outcomes: Onshape was acquired by PTC in 2019 for $525 million 11, Desktop Metal went public via SPAC in 2020 (later acquired by Nano Dimension in 2025) 6, and Framebridge was acquired by Graham Holdings 6.

Portfolio

Construct Capital (2020-present)

Company Year Stage Sector Source
Hadrian 2021 Seed Aerospace/defense manufacturing 12
Veho 2021 Series A Logistics/delivery 13
Copia Automation 2021 Seed Industrial DevOps 14
Telegraph 2021 Seed Freight rail logistics 15
Verve Motion 2021 Series A Industrial wearables 16
Impulse Labs 2021 Seed Home appliances/electrification 17
The Rounds ~2021 Seed Consumer delivery (acquired) 1
Arkestro 2022 Series A AI procurement 18
Hadrian 2022 Series A Aerospace/defense manufacturing 12
Chef Robotics 2023 Seed Food production automation 19
ReadyOn 2023 Seed Hourly worker scheduling 20
Hadrian 2023 Series B (led) Aerospace/defense manufacturing 21
Monaire ~2023 Seed HVAC/refrigeration 10
DBOS 2024 Seed (co-led) Cloud-native OS 22
Aetherflux 2024 Seed Space-based solar power 23
Nexxa AI 2026 Seed (led) AI agents for heavy industry 24
US Chemical Technologies 2026 Unknown Chemicals 25
BackOps 2026 Series A AI supply chain OS 26
Swarm Aero 2026 Series A UAV/drone swarms 27
Amca 2025 Series A Aerospace/defense components 28
Sphere Semi 2024 Formation (led, $7.5M) Analog chip design 137
Advex 2023 Seed (co-led) Synthetic data 142
Didero 2024 Seed Supply chain data/AI 134
ChargeLab 2021 Seed (led) EV infrastructure 133
Kinetic 2023 Series A (co-led) Auto repair/maintenance 138
Nauta 2025 Seed (co-led) AI logistics for importers 144
Owlery ~2023 Unknown Logistics automation 1
TimberEye ~2024 Seed (led) Lumber supply chain 143
WayTrade ~2023 Unknown Renewable fuel trading 1
Amplio 2022 Seed (co-led) Electronic component supply chain 135
Folio 2025 Series A (co-led) Hospitality marketplace 140
GrailPay 2025 Seed (led) Payments/bank trust 136
Mandrel 2023 Pre-Seed Inventory accounting 125
Woflow 2022 Series A (co-led) Merchant data onboarding 139
Impilo 2024 Series A (led) Remote patient monitoring logistics 141
Teero ~2023 Unknown Dental staffing 1

Note: This table represents approximately 36 of an estimated 57-69 total investments (52-63%) 1025. Entries marked with “~” for year use approximate founding year as a proxy; entries marked “Unknown” for stage indicate the specific round type could not be independently verified.

NEA (2012-2020)

Company Year Stage Sector Source
Desktop Metal ~2015 Early-stage 3D printing/manufacturing 6
Onshape ~2014 Early-stage Cloud CAD software 611
Framebridge ~2015 Early-stage Custom framing/consumer 6
Tulip 2017 Series A Manufacturing software 29
Formlabs ~2016 Growth 3D printing 630
Guideline ~2016 Early-stage 401(k) platform 6

In Their Own Words

“First and foremost, we’re investing in people, in the actual entrepreneur, and that’s frankly what then has led me into the industrial space.” – Dayna Grayson, 20VC podcast 31

“Actually, I spend the majority of my time proactively researching spaces, researching sectors, and getting to know networks of people.” – Dayna Grayson, 20VC podcast 31

“I hate the word signaling. I think if we could change that word about signaling and just try to get to truth in everything we do.” – Dayna Grayson, 20VC podcast 31

“We’ve been with Tulip from the start, and I was drawn to the company’s ability to scale sales in a SaaS-like fashion and to create productivity directly on the shop floor. This is the beginning of the digital transformation of manufacturing.” – Dayna Grayson, Tulip Series B announcement 32

“We think the next vintage of really strong returns will probably come from these spaces… akin to sort of investing in SaaS, circa 2012, to 2014.” – Dayna Grayson, The Full Ratchet podcast 8

“We will not make any investments that we don’t see a really strong why now within these sectors.” – Dayna Grayson, The Full Ratchet podcast 8

“We will not scale beyond probably four or five partners at most.” – Dayna Grayson, The Full Ratchet podcast 8

“We’ve never been more optimistic. There’s a revolution underway in the way we make the economy more efficient.” – Dayna Grayson, Construct Capital Fund III announcement 9

What Founders Say

“We couldn’t have asked for better partners to continue scaling Tulip. Vertex Ventures US, NEA, and Pitango share our vision and drive to revolutionize the way manufacturing works.” – Natan Linder, Co-Founder and CEO of Tulip, Series B announcement 32

No other independently sourced founder testimonials found. Firm website does not feature founder testimonials.

Connections

  • Board member, Hadrian – joined the board when Construct Capital led the $117M Series B in December 2023 21
  • Board member, Desktop Metal (NYSE: DM) – chair of the compensation committee; board seat from NEA investment through 2020 IPO 6
  • Board member, Copia Automation – joined through Construct Capital’s seed investment 14
  • Board member, Tulip – joined through NEA’s Series A lead in 2017 29
  • Board member, Onshape – through NEA investment, through PTC acquisition in 2019 611
  • Board member, Framebridge – through NEA investment, through Graham Holdings acquisition 6
  • Co-founder, Construct Capital – alongside Rachel Holt (former Uber senior executive) 2
  • Founding member, All Raise – organization focused on improving diversity in venture capital 4
  • Venture partner, Harvard Business School – advisor to the MS/MBA program 3
  • TechCrunch Disrupt Startup Battlefield Judge (2021) 6
  • Former partner, NEA (2012-2020) 6
  • Former principal, North Bridge Venture Partners (c. 2006-2012) 5

Frequent co-investors: Lux Capital, Founders Fund, Andreessen Horowitz, Caffeinated Capital, Lachy Groom.

Sources

  1. Construct Capital website, “Companies,” accessed April 2026. https://www.constructcap.com/companies↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩

  2. TechCrunch, “Another women-led venture firm gains momentum, with Uber exec Rachel Holt as co-founder,” January 14, 2020. https://techcrunch.com/2020/01/14/another-women-led-venture-firm-gains-momentum-with-uber-exec-rachel-holt-as-cofounder/↩↩

  3. University of Virginia School of Engineering, “For this Founder and Investor, It All Started with Systems Engineering,” accessed April 2026. https://engineering.virginia.edu/news-events/news/founder-and-investor-it-all-started-systems-engineering↩↩↩↩

  4. Cambridge Associates PI Summit, “Dayna Grayson,” accessed April 2026. http://caconferences.com/pisummit/team/dayna-grayson/↩↩↩↩↩↩↩

  5. VCIC, “Dayna Grayson, North Bridge Venture Partners,” accessed April 2026. https://www.vcic.org/dayna-grayson-north-bridge-venture-partners/↩↩

  6. TechCrunch, “Construct Capital’s Dayna Grayson will be a Startup Battlefield Judge at Disrupt 2021,” July 16, 2021. https://techcrunch.com/2021/07/16/construct-capitals-dayna-grayson-will-be-a-battlefield-judge-at-disrupt-2021/↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩

  7. Construct Capital website, “Our Point-of-View,” accessed April 2026. https://www.constructcap.com/construct-point-of-view↩

  8. The Full Ratchet, “291. Competing with Amazon, Combatting 60% Talent Attrition, and Driving Transformation of Foundational Industries (Dayna Grayson & Rachel Holt),” accessed April 2026. https://fullratchet.net/291-competing-with-amazon-combatting-60-talent-attrition-and-driving-transformation-of-foundational-industries-dayna-grayson-rachel-holt/↩↩↩↩↩↩↩

  9. Construct Capital website, “Announcing Fund III,” March 31, 2025. https://www.constructcap.com/articles/announcing-fund-iii↩↩

  10. Tracxn, “Construct Capital - 2026 Investor Profile, Portfolio, Team & Investment Trends,” accessed April 2026. https://tracxn.com/d/venture-capital/construct-capital/__zohGfjmiCiEOyWki_Ih_mCkmLXDyoICZ5poeJBQWubU↩↩↩

  11. PTC, “PTC Completes Acquisition of Onshape,” November 2019. https://www.ptc.com/en/news/2019/ptc-completes-acquisition-onshape↩↩↩

  12. Hadrian startup profile in Seedlist database, verified from multiple press sources. https://www.hadrian.co/press↩↩

  13. Construct Capital website, “Investing in Veho: The Next Generation of Shipping,” accessed April 2026. https://www.constructcap.com/articles/investing-in-veho-the-next-generation-of-shipping↩

  14. Copia Automation press release, “Copia Automation Raises $16.4M in Funding to Bring DevOps Efficiencies to Industrial Automation,” October 5, 2021. https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2021/10/05/2308494/0/en/Copia-Automation-Raises-16-4M-in-Funding-to-Bring-DevOps-Efficiencies-to-Industrial-Automation.html↩↩

  15. Crunchbase, “Seed Round - Telegraph - 2021-07-19,” accessed April 2026. https://www.crunchbase.com/funding_round/telegraph-system-seed–c85e3005↩

  16. TechCrunch, “Verve Motion raises $15M following exosuit pilot with grocery workers,” July 15, 2021. https://techcrunch.com/2021/07/15/verve-motion-raises-15m-following-exosuit-pilot-with-grocery-workers/↩

  17. Sourcery VC, “Impulse Labs, Trojan Horse for Battery-Powered Homes,” accessed April 2026. https://www.sourcery.vc/p/impulse-labs-trojan-horse-for-battery↩

  18. Arkestro press release, “Arkestro Announces $26 Million in Series A Funding Round,” June 2022. https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/arkestro-announces-26-million-in-series-a-funding-round-301567208.html↩

  19. TechCrunch, “Chef Robotics eyes commercial kitchens with a $14.75M raise,” January 26, 2024. https://techcrunch.com/2024/01/26/chef-robotics-eyes-commercial-kitchens-with-a-14-75m-raise/↩

  20. CB Insights, “ReadyOn - Products, Competitors, Financials,” accessed April 2026. https://www.cbinsights.com/company/readyon↩

  21. Cooley LLP, “Hadrian Automation Announces $117 Million Series B,” February 21, 2024. https://www.cooley.com/news/coverage/2024/2024-02-21-hadrian-automation-announces-117-million-series-b↩↩

  22. VC News Daily, “DBOS Pulls In $8.5M Seed Financing,” accessed April 2026. https://vcnewsdaily.com/dbos/venture-capital-funding/mnjjfkbynb↩

  23. Crunchbase, “Seed Round - Aetherflux - 2024-10-09,” accessed April 2026. https://www.crunchbase.com/funding_round/aetherflux-seed–461089d3↩

  24. Finsmes, “Nexxa.ai Raises $9M in Seed Funding,” January 2026. https://www.finsmes.com/2026/01/nexxa-ai-raises-9m-in-seed-funding.html↩

  25. CB Insights, “Construct Capital Portfolio Investments,” accessed April 2026. https://www.cbinsights.com/investor/construct-capital↩↩↩

  26. BusinessWire, “BackOps Raises $26M Series A to Build the AI-Native Operating System for Global Supply Chains,” March 12, 2026. https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260312950847/en/BackOps-Raises-$26M-Series-A-to-Build-the-AI-Native-Operating-System-for-Global-Supply-Chains↩

  27. BusinessWire, “Swarm Aero Announces $35M Series A Financing Led by Two Sigma Ventures and Silent Ventures,” March 10, 2026. https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260310673101/en/Swarm-Aero-Announces-$35M-Series-A-Financing-Led-by-Two-Sigma-Ventures-and-Silent-Ventures↩

  28. PRNewswire, “Amca, a legacy aerospace business built for the future, launches with $76M,” 2025. https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/amca-a-legacy-aerospace-business-built-for-the-future-launches-with-76m-to-acquire-specialized-suppliers-and-develop-new-products-302424069.html↩

  29. TechCrunch, “Tulip, the app platform for manufacturers, picks up $13 million from NEA,” June 6, 2017. https://techcrunch.com/2017/06/06/tulip-the-app-platform-for-manufacturers-picks-up-13-million-from-nea/↩↩

  30. Formlabs press release, “Formlabs Closes on Funding Round from NEA Bringing Valuation over One Billion,” accessed April 2026. https://formlabs.com/company/press/funding-from-nea-bringing-valuation-over-one-billion-Jeff-Immelt-to-board-of-directors/↩

  31. Deciphr AI transcript, “20VC: NEA Partner, Dayna Grayson on Sourcing, Picking, Winning, Gut vs Data in Investment Decision-Making,” accessed April 2026. https://www.deciphr.ai/podcast/20vc-nea-partner-dayna-grayson-on-sourcing-picking-winning-gut-vs-data-in-investment-decisionmaking–the-evolution-of-entrepreneurial-expectations-of-venture↩↩↩

  32. Tulip press release, “Tulip Announces $18.4M Series B Funding Round,” accessed April 2026. https://tulip.co/press/tulip-announces-18m-series-b-funding-round/↩↩

  33. TechCrunch, “ChargeLab raises seed capital to be the software provider powering EV charging infrastructure,” February 23, 2021. https://techcrunch.com/2021/02/23/chargelab-raises-seed-capital-to-be-the-software-provider-powering-ev-charging-infrastructure/↩

  34. TechCrunch, “Didero is using AI to solve supply chain management at mid-market companies,” July 17, 2024. https://techcrunch.com/2024/07/17/didero-is-using-ai-to-solve-supply-chain-management-at-mid-market-companies/ — $7M Seed led by First Round Capital; Construct Capital participated. ↩

  35. PR Newswire, “Amplio raises $6 million in seed funding to make supply chains resilient,” December 6, 2022. https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/amplio-raises-6-million-in-seed-funding-to-make-supply-chains-resilient-301695181.html — Seed co-led by Construct Capital, Slow Ventures, and Koch Disruptive Technologies. ↩

  36. BusinessWire, “GrailPay Raises $6.7M to Build the Risk and Intelligence Layer for Bank Payments,” June 11, 2025. https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250611494161/en/GrailPay-Raises-$6.7M-to-Build-the-Risk-and-Intelligence-Layer-for-Bank-Payments — Seed led by Construct Capital. ↩

  37. Construct Capital, “Investing in Sphere Semi: Reinventing Analog Chip Design for the AI Era,” accessed April 2026. https://www.constructcap.com/articles/investing-in-sphere-semi-reinventing-analog-chip-design-for-the-ai-era — Construct led $7.5M formation capital in 2024; subsequent $12.5M Series A on September 22, 2025 was co-led by Acme and Future Ventures. ↩

  38. Banks Report, “EV Service & Repair Startup Kinetic Raises $10 Million Series A,” October 9, 2023. https://thebanksreport.com/vendors/ev-service-repair-startup-kinetic-raises-10-million-series-a/ — Series A co-led by Lux Capital and Construct Capital. ↩

  39. PR Newswire, “Woflow Expands Data Infrastructure Powering Digital Transformation with $7.3M in Series A Funding,” January 25, 2022. https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/woflow-expands-data-infrastructure-powering-digital-transformation-with-7-3m-in-series-a-funding-301467370.html — Series A co-led by Base10 Partners and Construct Capital. ↩

  40. BusinessWire, “Folio Raises $14M Series A to Transform Financial Operations at Hotels,” July 17, 2025. https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250717100483/en/Folio-Raises-$14M-Series-A-to-Transform-Financial-Operations-at-Hotels — Series A co-led by Thrive Capital and Construct Capital. ↩

  41. PR Newswire, “Impilo Secures $11.5 Million in Series A Funding to Transform Healthcare Access Nationwide,” November 14, 2024. https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/impilo-secures-11-5-million-in-series-a-funding-to-transform-healthcare-access-nationwide-302305504.html — Series A led by Construct Capital. ↩

  42. TechCrunch, “How Advex creates synthetic data to improve machine vision for manufacturers,” October 28, 2024. https://techcrunch.com/2024/10/28/how-advex-creates-synthetic-data-to-improve-machine-vision-for-manufacturers/ — $3.1M Seed closed December 2023; total $3.6M with November 2024 extension. Construct Capital, Pear VC, and Emerson Collective participated. ↩

  43. TechCrunch, “Human composting and timber marketplaces: Talking ‘industrial’ VC with investor Dayna Grayson,” May 4, 2024. https://techcrunch.com/2024/05/04/human-composting-and-timber-marketplaces-talking-industrial-vc-with-investor-dayna-grayson/ — Construct Capital led TimberEye’s seed round. ↩

  44. BusinessWire, “Nauta Raises $7M to Modernize Global Logistics with AI,” August 25, 2025. https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250825792600/en/Nauta-Raises-$7M-to-Modernize-Global-Logistics-with-AI — Seed co-led by Construct Capital and Predictive. ↩