A former Pennsylvania chief procurement officer has raised $10 million in venture capital to expand Procurated, his online government-vendor review platform, which asks state and local agency staff to rate the services they buy from private contractors.

“It’s really easy for a supplier with a shoddy track record” to hide behind a few glowing testimonials, said David Yarkin, who spent the 15 years since he left the Rendell administration starting and running his Washington consulting firm, Government Sourcing Solutions.

Procurated “exposes all the negative experiences” governments may have suffered at the hands of a contractor, Yarkin added. “So you can make a choice with your eyes open.”

On Procurated, “our buyers can learn about suppliers, not only from their peers in Pennsylvania, but from those across the country,” said Curt Topper, secretary of Pennsylvania’s Department of General Services, which oversees state construction projects and was Procurated’s first user.

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