- Specialization
- Not classified
- Business
Wholesale Tradeand 1 more business valuesLess
- Logistics Services
- Market
Cross Industryand 1 more market valuesLess
- Manufacturing
- Ecosystem
- Not applicable
- Customers
Small Businessesand 1 more customers valuesLess
- Enterprises
More details
- Organization type
- Commercial Company
- Ecosystem
- Not applicable
- Business
- Wholesale Trade, Logistics Services
- Specialization
- Not classified
- Market
- Cross Industry, Manufacturing
- Customers
- Small Businesses, Enterprises
- Delivery models
- Physical Goods
- Revenue models
- Product Sales
- Listing status
- Not classified
- Latest equity round
- Seed
- Reported funding amount
- Not classified
About
Donkey is an AI-native trading company that buys directly from Chinese factories and sells delivered, duty-paid goods to U.S. importers. It differentiates itself by analyzing customs records to identify actual factories and markups, providing landed-cost quotes within 72 hours, conducting factory-floor inspections, and acting as the U.S. counterparty.
Market
Donkey competes in cross-border B2B sourcing, procurement, and import logistics for U.S. buyers of China-manufactured goods, positioning itself as an AI-native trading company rather than merely a supplier marketplace or freight forwarder. It differentiates by using customs-record data to identify the actual factory, taking title, arranging factory-floor inspection, acting as importer of record, and delivering one duty-paid price through a U.S. counterparty; the named competitors generally emphasize factory matching, managed sourcing, quality inspection, procurement services, or marketplace-based trade protection.
Donkey targets U.S.-based importers of repeat-order physical goods—especially housewares, furniture, tools, lighting, and auto parts—whose procurement or supply-chain teams buy through trading companies or need a U.S. counterparty. Its model appears best suited to qualified small and mid-sized importers that can begin with one recurring SKU, although Donkey does not disclose a formal company-size threshold.
At a Glance
Problem
US importers often source through opaque trading companies that conceal the factory and add a 15–30% markup to every container. This creates a costly, information-poor procurement process: buyers may not know who actually manufactures a product, whether the quoted price is competitive, or whether quality has been checked before payment. Donkey’s clearest use case is a recurring reorder: an importer sends a photo of a part, and Donkey identifies the actual factory and promises to beat the importer’s landed cost within 72 hours.
Product / Service
Donkey positions itself as an AI-native, factory-direct trading company for US importers. It buys directly from Chinese factories and sells to importers at a single US-dollar price delivered to the buyer’s dock, with duty paid. The company takes title, manages the money and logistics, provides its own factory-floor inspection before paying the supplier, and offers credit-insured net-45 terms to qualified buyers.
The technology layer parses public US customs filings to identify genuine factories, distinguish them from shells and freight forwarders, and build a data set of pricing and supplier reliability. By combining this software with sourcing, quality control, logistics, and financing, Donkey aims to deliver lower landed costs, greater factory transparency, and a simpler procurement experience than the traditional trading-company model.
Market
Donkey competes in the overlap of China-US sourcing, logistics, manufacturing procurement, supply-chain services, and applied AI. Its primary competitive alternative is the incumbent trading-company model, which Donkey says relies on large human coordination teams and opaque markups. The available profile does not name specific rival companies; instead, it frames Donkey as a technology-enabled alternative to traditional trading intermediaries.
The company is listed by Y Combinator as an active Summer 2026 company in Logistics, Manufacturing, Supply Chain, and AI, with zero jobs listed at the time of the profile. The evidence indicates an early-stage launch with the capability to process settled orders, but it provides no quantified revenue, customer, order-volume, or GMV metrics. Accordingly, traction is not yet publicly measurable from the available information, and pre-revenue status cannot be confirmed.
Founders & Leadership
Funding History
Y Combinator
Recent News
Donkey publicly launched on Y Combinator’s Launch YC as an AI-native trading company. It offers factory-direct sourcing for U.S. importers, including landed-price quotes with tariffs and delivery, while using AI agents to analyze public customs records and coordinating factory-floor quality checks.
Active Roles
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Get notified when they postBusiness Model
Donkey earns a trading margin embedded in a single delivered, duty-paid price for goods it sources, takes title to, inspects, imports, and delivers to U.S. buyers. It states that it charges no separate fees, retainers, or percentage surcharges; qualified customers may also receive net-45 credit terms.