trade-intelligence
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Benjamin Martindale Wants to Turn the Shipping Container Into a Cart
He grew up around industrial supply, learned Mandarin, sold software factory by factory in Guangzhou, and came back with a simple idea: small importers should be able to buy the whole box.
Evan Smith
Evan Smith is the co-founder and CEO of Altana, a New York company that turns the world's public and non-public trade data into a shared, AI-driven model of the global supply chain. Under his leadership Altana reached a $1 billion valuation in 2024 on a $200 million Series C, and its platform is now used by enterprises like Maersk and BASF and by government agencies including U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Smith frames the work as building 'Globalization 2.0' - rebuilding global commerce to be more resilient, secure, and fair rather than retreating from it.