NationGraph: Uncovering the Secrets of State, Local & Education Procurement

The U.S. public sector is a massive market, but selling into state, local, and educational (SLED) institutions is a particularly puzzling and thorny endeavor. Doing it successfully requires deep and nuanced insight into potential customers and what they need. However, the most valuable of these insights are often buried beneath layers of complexity. Master Government Aggregators (MGAs) and Value-Added Resellers (VARs) have long-controlled this type of procurement, hoarding critical knowledge and forcing vendors to navigate outdated, friction-heavy systems just to compete. In SLED sales, secrets are synonymous with success. Now more than ever, enterprises that sell into states, local governments, and educational institutions are looking for ways to gain an edge—to unlock hidden opportunities and outmaneuver entrenched incumbents.

At XYZ, we’ve seen this challenge firsthand working with Promise Pay, Peregrine, Verkada, Ordo, and many others. We’ve seen how challenging it’s been for them to provide technology that can impact millions of people – whether they’re making government and utility payments easier, helping law enforcement act with more data, securing school campuses, or providing more nutritious school lunches. Obscure requirements and surreptitious procedures leave most players scrabbling for guidance and opportunities. The market isn’t short on contracts—it’s short on clarity. Procurement intelligence has long been asymmetric, favoring those with deep institutional knowledge. That changes with NationGraph. 

CEO Kimia Hamidi’s previous business Buyer was acquired by Ramp, where he spent years inside procurement workflows, unlocking advantages and savings where others saw red tape. At Citadel, Eden Ding spent years turning vast oceans of financial data into a tactical upper hand in some of the highest-stakes environments. Today, they announce NationGraph, a data-driven platform designed to lift the veil on SLED procurement and provide vendors with equal access to the asymmetric information edge that has historically been used to out-compete them. Instead of slogging through old documents, vendors get:

• Organized Purchase Order Insights: NationGraph indexes vast amounts of public contract data, layering in proprietary insights to uncover hidden opportunities. Discover exactly which vendors a city buys from, how much they spend, and when the contract is up for renewal.

• Meeting Minutes & Signals: By parsing PDFs and transcripts, NationGraph surfaces budget discussions or leadership changes that signal new opportunities. AI-driven workflows automate manual procurement signals, helping vendors tailor their GTM strategies based on predictive markers.

• Procurement Rules & Thresholds: Know where sole-source caps start or how many quotes a county legally needs for a project—right in your NationGraph profile. The system integrates directly with existing CRMs, providing real-time intelligence that empowers teams to act before competitors.

• Unified Workflows: Set up alerts so your team knows the instant an RFP is published or a significant deal is about to expire—no more scrambling at the last minute. This streamlined process accelerates sales efforts and ensures vendors remain proactive instead of reactive.

The NationGraph Edge

NationGraph functions as a force multiplier for vendors—helping them move faster, with better data, and without needing to rely on slow-moving intermediaries. The problem with existing solutions is that they only tell you what’s already public and help you draft mediocre proposals. By the time an RFP hits GovWin or other databases, the best-positioned vendors have already laid the groundwork to win. 

NationGraph shifts businesses from reactive to proactive, equipping them with deep procurement intelligence before competitors even realize an opportunity exists. This is the asymmetric advantage vendors have always needed—access to insider-level insights without the gatekeepers.

Momentum & Market Backing

NationGraph isn’t just reimagining procurement—it’s giving businesses the keys to a locked system that has historically had no door. That’s why we’re ecstatic to lead their $4.5M Seed Round alongside Edtech giants Reach Capital, and with participation from enterprise experts Go Global Ventures and angels who built and scaled iconic companies such as OpenGov and Clever.

This investment helps the team give customers a master key to unlocking procurement’s deepest secrets. NationGraph is flipping the script of information asymmetry, putting real-time procurement intelligence in the hands of vendors, and setting a new gold standard for how businesses sell to the public sector. In a space where knowing first has always meant winning, NationGraph is cracking the enigma machine of SLED procurement. 

They’re not just making procurement smarter—they’re making it transparent, inevitable, and winnable. This is procurement intelligence reimagined.