Ninja Van nearly doubles revenue in FYE 2021, while reducing losses

Ninja Van, the Singapore-based logistics company, posted a revenue of US$638.8 million for the financial year ending (FYE) 30 June 2021 – nearly double what it made last year, according to its latest regulatory filings available on VentureCap Insights.

Though the company is still unprofitable, its loss also narrowed 15% to US$72.4 million in 2021, compared with a loss of US$85.3 million in 2020.

As co-founder and CEO Lai Chang Wen previously stated, Ninja Van has “never failed to more than double its revenue” every year. Generally speaking, the latest figures keep that trend alive.

The results also provide a positive view of how the company managed the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. Over the past two years, the demand for ecommerce has increased rapidly, which has also resulted in soaring shipping volumes.

For Southeast Asia’s ecommerce sector as a whole, gross merchandise value in 2021 reached US$120 billion, up 62% from the previous year, according to the e-Conomy SEA 2021 report from Google, Bain, and Temasek.

However, things may have gotten more complex since then: The Ukraine war, among other things, has contributed to rising gas prices across Southeast Asia, which might affect costs for logistics players like Ninja Van.

Chasing profitability

The bulk of Ninja Van’s revenue comes from delivery service fees and handling fees. However, annual revenue from the trading of goods also increased substantially from US$96,617 to US$2.7 million. This could refer to revenue from cross-border shipments between China and Southeast Asia as well as overseas procurement and escrow services.

Ninja Van’s revenue growth also outpaced its cost of services, which went up about 95%. This meant that the company had a healthier gross profit margin of 61.6% in 2021, climbing from 50.1% the previous year.

Administrative expenses, however, increased almost 2X. The jump was mostly driven by the logistic firm’s investments, particularly in tech and talent.

A Ninja Van Group spokesperson notes that the company has made several strategic investments over the last two years to improve its service standards, including automated parcel sorting systems across its network to improve sorting speed.

The company has also built Logistics+, a suite of supply chain management solutions for SMEs in Southeast Asia. The solutions include Ninja Direct (procurement), Ninja Financial Services (cross border payments, embedded financing options), Ninja Fulfillment, and Ninja Mart (distribution platform).

Revenue soars in Indonesia and Malaysia