# Donkey

> Donkey is an AI-native trading company that buys straight from Chinese factories and sells delivered to US importers at one USD price to their dock, duty paid. By reading public US customs records, Donkey identifies the factory that actually makes a part, quotes it without the traditional 15-30% trading-company markup, runs its own inspections on the factory floor before the factory gets paid, and offers credit-insured net-45 terms. A YC Summer 2026 company based in San Francisco and China.

- **Founded:** 2025
- **Headquarters:** San Francisco, California, United States
- **Founders:** Benjamin Martindale (Co-founder & CEO), Minghao Tan (Co-founder & CTO)
- **Team size:** 7
- **Products:** Factory-direct sourcing, Delivered, duty-paid pricing, On-the-floor quality inspection, Credit-insured net-45 terms, Customs-data pricing engine
- **Notable:** Accepted into Y Combinator's Summer 2026 (S26) batch., Founder Benjamin Martindale previously built Prelude OS with 31 paying factory customers in Guangzhou., Founding team advised Chinese heavy-equipment manufacturers (Sany, Sinoboom) on overseas expansion.

## Products & services

- **Factory-direct sourcing** — Send one photo of a part you reorder; Donkey uses public US customs records to identify the factory that makes it and returns a landed-cost quote in 72 hours, or you keep your existing supplier.
- **Delivered, duty-paid pricing** — Donkey takes title to the goods and delivers to the importer's US dock at one USD price, duties included - no separate freight, customs, or FX handling for the buyer.
- **On-the-floor quality inspection** — Donkey places its own inspectors on the factory floor and clears quality before the factory is paid.
- **Credit-insured net-45 terms** — Qualified buyers get credit-insured net-45 payment terms, with Donkey moving the money and carrying the financing.
- **Customs-data pricing engine** — Software that parses public customs filings to distinguish legitimate factories from shell companies and compounds pricing and reliability data with every settled order.

## Achievements

- Accepted into Y Combinator's Summer 2026 (S26) batch.
- Founder Benjamin Martindale previously built Prelude OS with 31 paying factory customers in Guangzhou.
- Founding team advised Chinese heavy-equipment manufacturers (Sany, Sinoboom) on overseas expansion.
- Built software that parses public customs filings to distinguish real factories from shell companies.

## Latest updates

- **2026-07** — Donkey launched publicly as part of Y Combinator's Summer 2026 batch, positioning as an AI-native trading company for China-to-US importers.

## Links

- Website: https://donkey.trade
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/thedonkeytrade/

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/donkey-yc-s26
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-07-31