• Ninja Van

  Participated · Series E · Sep 2021

  Founded in Singapore in 2014 as a last-mile express logistics company, Ninja Van has grown into a tech-enabled regional e-commerce logistics provider. The company connects over 1.5 million active shippers to nearly 100 million recipients across Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam and the Philippines. It employs more than 61,000 staff and delivery personnel and handles around 2 million parcels a day across the region. Ninja Van said it will invest its fresh funds to build infrastructure and its technology platform, including creating micro-supply-chain solutions to help Southeast Asian businesses optimize e-commerce. The company raised $578 million in its latest funding round, making it Singapore’s newest unicorn and marking its largest fundraising since inception. Bloomberg reported the round will lift Ninja Van’s valuation above $1 billion and that the company is preparing for an initial public offering as soon as next year; Ninja Van declined to comment on the valuation. Ninja Van operates an e-commerce parcel delivery network across Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, and Vietnam. The company claims it delivers more than a million packages and works with major merchants including Shopee, Lazada and Tokopedia. It is a six-year-old, Singapore-based startup. Ninja Van secured an additional $279 million in a Series D, bringing total capital raised to about $400 million to date. An analysis tied to this round suggests a valuation of about $750 million. The company said it will use the fresh capital to push further into the business-to-business sector and to grow its other existing services. Ninja Van is a Singapore-based, technology-enabled last-mile logistics operator that provides delivery solutions to businesses of all sizes. Launched in 2014 by Lai Chang Wen, the company began operations in Singapore offering parcel tracking, real-time updates and alternative pickup points. It has expanded its network across Southeast Asia and now operates parcel delivery networks in Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. In January 2018 Ninja Van raised US$87m in a Series C financing. Backers included DPDgroup, ACE Capital and other investors. The company intends to use the funds to improve its technology and operational capabilities. Ninja Van is a Singapore-based last-mile logistics provider offering a plug-and-play, cloud-powered delivery platform for e-commerce companies across Southeast Asia. It operates a primary fleet in each city augmented by a crowdsourced reserve fleet supplied by taxi drivers, the public, and partner startups, and offers its fleet management system to partners in exchange for surge capacity. The company is currently active in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam, serving about 3,000 customers (including Lazada and Zalora) and completing roughly 15,000 deliveries per day. Management says the firm is profitable in some large cities. With $30 million in new Series B funding, Ninja Van plans to expand into Thailand and the Philippines before August and to push beyond tier-one cities into tier-two and tier-three locations. The financing will also support development of specialized services—cash-on-delivery, deliveries to out-of-reach places, and economically-priced options—to help broader e-commerce growth across the region. The company views Abraaj's regional network as a strategic asset to help open partnerships and markets.

• Stuart

  Led · Series A · Nov 2015

  Stuart is an on-demand, same-hour delivery startup operating in stealth that provides an app and API enabling shops and e-commerce sites to offer customers same-hour local delivery. The platform manages fleets of motorbikes, bicycles, cars and trucks and uses an algorithm to dispatch jobs efficiently and to 'pool' deliveries to avoid surge pricing while preserving same-hour fulfillment. A Paris beta test reportedly completed 1,000 deliveries a day in less than a month, and pricing is expected to start at €2.99 per delivery. The company is headquartered in Barcelona and is France-registered. Stuart was founded by Dominique Leca, Clément Benoit and Benjamin Chemla, who remain majority shareholders after the latest financing. It has raised €22M in a Series A led by GeoPost and previously raised €1.5M in seed funding from entrepreneurs including J.D. Blanc, J.A. Granjon and O. Mathiot. The team is recruiting aggressively and plans launches in Paris, Barcelona, Brussels, London and Berlin.

• Shutl

  Participated · Equity · Aug 2012

  Shutl operates a web platform that connects retailers to local same-day courier companies to enable deliveries within minutes of purchase or inside a one-hour window selected by the shopper. The company says its fastest delivery is just under 15 minutes and that it makes a profit on every delivery. Over the past year Shutl has expanded across the UK and is preparing for a North American launch. Shutl plans to debut in the U.S. in Q1 2013, starting with New York and San Francisco, followed by a phase two roll‑out targeting multiple U.S. cities and Canadian markets including Montreal and Toronto. The startup first came on the scene in late 2009 and is led by founder and CEO Tom Allason. Recent fundraising is being used to bankroll the planned U.S. expansion. Shutl operates a platform that links retailers to local same-day courier companies, enabling customers to receive orders within as little as 90 minutes or within a one-hour window. The service is used by UK retailers including Argos, Aurora Fashions, B&Q Tradepoint, Karen Millen and Maplin and runs in over 60 towns across the UK. Shutl claims a world-record e-commerce delivery of 15 minutes, though that claim is not independently verified. The company plans to use new funding to expand its team, acquire retail partners and prepare a U.S. launch in early 2013; its CEO estimates the U.S. same-day market could be worth about $26bn by 2016. Founder and CEO Tom Allason previously founded and exited eCourier.co.uk. Shutl is positioned against large players like Amazon and eBay and startups such as Postmates. Shutl aggregates transportation carriers to offer rapid, short-window deliveries and has been piloting its service with UK retailer Argos. The company plans to use new funding to build a sales team, expand its platform and explore international markets. Founded in late 2008 and initially bootstrapped with £50,000 (matched by the team), Shutl completed subsequent financings in October 2009 and August 2010. It received £500,000 from a group led by Simon Murdoch and Big Bang Ventures in October 2009 and a £400,000 follow-on in August 2010. Operational traction includes average month-on-month sales growth of 89% in the first 12 months since first delivery (March 2010). The business is active in the UK market and positioning to scale commercially. Shutl is a stealth-mode UK startup led by founder and CEO Tom Allason that says it “promises to re-define e-commerce,” and the product appears tied to the courier/distribution space. The company is preparing an official launch later in the year; its website showed a countdown to December 31. Shutl has secured early-stage angel funding and is keeping operational details close to the vest while in stealth. Leadership additions include angel investor Simon Murdoch joining the board as non-executive chairman and Chris Öhlund as a non-executive director. Allason is a serial entrepreneur who previously founded eCourier.co.uk, which raised £8m from angels and a VC and which he left in 2008 with £7.5m in turnover and 250 staff. No operating metrics for Shutl itself were disclosed in the article.

No current team members are available.