How Founder Maria Davidson Transformed Construction Procurement Into a $5 Billion Annual Order Powerhouse

Discover how Maria Davidson built Kojo, the largest U.S. construction procurement platform, processing $5 billion in annual orders within five years.

By: AXL Media

Published: Apr 13, 2026, 7:44 AM EDT

Source: Information for this report was sourced from Entrepreneur

A Digital Revolution in the American Construction Supply Chain

The domestic construction industry has long struggled with project delays and budget overruns, exemplified by the stark contrast between the rapid completion of the Empire State Building and modern infrastructure lags. Maria Davidson addressed this efficiency gap by founding Kojo, a procurement platform designed to modernize how tradespeople manage materials. Since its commercial launch in 2020, the company has scaled from zero to processing $5 billion in annual orders, establishing itself as the premier digital hub for construction material sourcing in the United States.

From Investment Banking to the Front Lines of Trade Work

The transition from a high-stakes role at Goldman Sachs to a construction tech pioneer began when Davidson encountered venture capitalist Joe Lonsdale. At 23, Davidson moved to San Francisco to serve as chief of staff at 8VC, where she focused on traditionally overlooked industries burdened by manual processes. Her background, spanning a childhood in the Soviet Union and Israel to an education at Oxford, provided a unique perspective that allowed her to view the American construction sector with a fresh, outsider mindset.

Identifying Critical Bottlenecks Through Grassroots Research

Davidson spent the early years of her venture visiting active job sites, often bringing refreshments to facilitate open conversations with thousands of electricians, plumbers, and roofers. These interactions revealed that materials account for nearly 40% of trade costs, yet the $400 billion market relied almost entirely on fragmented communication like text messages and handwritten binders. According to Davidson, this lack of transparency led to frequent double orders and lost inventory, prompting her to build a unified system for field teams and distributors.