Abraaj leads $30m round for SE Asia last-mile delivery start-up

Monk's Hill Ventures, which led the company's $2.5 million Series A last year, also took part. It was joined by two new investors: YJ Capital, the corporate VC arm of Yahoo Japan; and B Capital Group, a US-based growth-stage investor that acts in partnership with Boston Consulting Group.

Ninja Van leverages the rapid growth of e-commerce in Southeast Asia and the fact that the region's delivery infrastructure is still lacking. The company was founded in Singapore in 2014 and subsequently entered Malaysia and Indonesia. It will use the new capital injection to support the roll-out of services in markets such as Thailand, Vietnam and the Philippines.

Ninja Van claims to support more than 3,000 clients - ranging from e-commerce specialists such as Zalora and Lazada to traditional retailers like Watsons and ToysRUs - and to deliver around 15,000 packages per day.

The company relies on a technology platform that allows for multiple pick-ups and deliveries on a single route by solving logistics issues and calculating the fastest journey time to the recipient. Deliveries are made through a combination of partnerships with transport fleets and a crowd-sourced driver network. Customers also have the option of picking up packages from "Ninja Collect" partner retail outlets.

In addition to entering new markets, Ninja Van wants to invest in customer support, tripling headcount in this department and improving processes.

"The Southeast Asia e-commerce sector is estimated to double in the next four years, with total e-commerce parcel delivery estimated to grow in line with the sector. Last-mile logistics, which is the backbone of e-commerce, remains a bottleneck, and Ninja Van is well-positioned to enhance the e-commerce experience for customers and businesses," Omar Lodhi, partner and head of Asia at Abraaj, said in a statement.

Several other delivery start-ups are looking to address this bottleneck. For example, both Gogovan and Lalamove started in Hong Kong and have received venture capital funding to support expansion into Southeast Asia.

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• Topics
• Southeast Asia
• Technology
• Early-stage
• Venture
• TMT
• Monk's Hill Ventures
• The Abraaj Group
• Logistics