Ninja Van raised $578 million from investors including Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group, making the logistics startup Singapore’s newest unicorn.
Besides Alibaba, existing investors B Capital Group—the venture capital firm set up by Facebook cofounder Eduardo Saverin and Raj Ganguly, a former executive at Bain Capital—and European parcel delivery company Geopost/DPDgroup, along with Monk’s Hill Ventures and Brunei’s sovereign wealth fund Zamrud also participated in the latest funding round, Ninja Van said in a statement late Sunday.
This is Ninja Van’s biggest fundraising since its inception in 2014, data from Venture Cap Insights showed. At the height of the pandemic in April 2020, the company raised $279 million at a valuation of $780 million, according to the data. The latest funding round will lift the company’s valuation well above $1 billion as it prepares for an initial public offering as soon as next year, Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the matter. Ninja Van declined to comment on the latest valuation.
“The quality of investors joining us in this round of investment is a clear signal that the market recognizes the emerging opportunities for e-commerce logistics in Southeast Asia and how as an entrenched player in the region, Ninja Van is positioned to take a central role in meeting the shifting demands of both businesses and consumers,” Lai Chang Wen, cofounder and CEO of Ninja Van Group, said in a statement.
Ninja van said it will invest the fresh funds to build its infrastructure and technology platform, which includes the creation of micro-supply chain solutions to help Southeast Asian businesses optimize e-commerce opportunities across the region.
“We strongly believe in the potential of e-commerce in Southeast Asia, in particular the power of technology-enabled logistics to fuel e-commerce growth,” Kenny Ho, head of investment for Southeast Asia at Alibaba, said in a statement. “With Ninja Van’s vast presence and extensive local insights in the region, we are confident that our partnership with Ninja Van would enable us to better serve participants in the e-commerce ecosystem across the region.”
Lai—a Forbes Asia 30 Under 30 alumnus—started Ninja Van seven years ago in Singapore as a last-mile express logistics company. Since then, it has become one of the region’s fastest-growing tech-enabled logistics companies, connecting over 1.5 million active shippers to nearly 100 million recipients across Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam and the Philippines. The company currently employs more than 61,000 staff and delivery personnel that support the delivery of around 2 million parcels a day throughout the region.
– Forbes