Ninja Van goes beyond ecommerce to drive growth

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Hello reader,

Life is all about pivoting and adapting as you evolve and grow.

When I was younger, I wanted to be a journalist. That pushed me to study communications and take several journalism-related courses. Eventually, I realized I was too incurious to be a real journalist (kudos to my newsroom colleagues, who are always ready to dig deep).

So, I took the skills I picked up from school and went into partnership content and content marketing. That’s how I’ve ended up here, writing all sorts of fun things like this newsletter for Tech in Asia.

The same applies to businesses. A company can start out doing one thing and evolve into another, using the know-how it has built to diversify and tap into new opportunities.

That’s the case for Singapore-based logistics company Ninja Van, which is leveraging its years of last-mile delivery expertise in ecommerce to unearth new avenues for business growth.

Today we look at:

• Ninja Van’s FY2023 earnings and its road ahead
• An antibiotic alternative startup that’s just raised funds
• Other newsy highlights such as Bain Capital’s exit from Axis Bank and a chipmaking giant’s significant US investment

Premium summary

Looking beneath the surface

Image credit: Timmy Loen

Singapore-based Ninja Van has announced its results for the financial year 2023. The logistics firm’s revenue fell 7% year on year while its operating losses widened by 32% in the 12 months ending June 2023. Let’s take a closer look.

• Stiff competition: Ninja Van is one of many logistics players that benefited from the rise of ecommerce in Southeast Asia, but the dynamic has shifted in recent years. The company has had to grapple not just with increasing competition from firms like J&T Express, which pursued a “very aggressive” pricing strategy, but also with the stronger bargaining power of ecommerce firms, many of which are publicly listed companies trying to cut costs.
• Diversifying options: To that end, Ninja Van is looking beyond ecommerce. It has ventured into cold chain logistics and launched Ninja Mart, a service that helps big consumer goods firms deliver their products to provision stores located outside metropolitan areas. However, ecommerce will still be a key part of its story.
• Positive vibes: CEO Lai Chang Wen is optimistic about Ninja Van’s future, predicting that it would hit EBITDA breakeven in the next 12 months and break even on a net profit basis within another six months.

Read more: Ninja Van eyes path beyond ecommerce as price war dents FY23 earnings

Startup spotlight

Not the antibiotics you know

Image credit: Timmy Loen

Ka-ching! Singapore startup Peptobiotics has raised US$6.2 million in a series A funding round led by Hatch Blue, an aquaculture-focused enterprise.

• Tackling the problem: Founded in 2020, Peptobiotics aims to combat the farming and aquaculture space’s overreliance on antibiotics, which opens the door for bacteria to be more resistant. This is of significant concern in the US, where roughly 80% of antibiotics are used in animals, the company said.
• How do they do it: Peptobiotics’s solution uses recombinant antimicrobial peptides, which are naturally occurring bacteria-inhibiting proteins.
• Money moves: The new capital will help the firm take its antibiotic alternative for the farming and aquaculture sector to market.

See also: Mapping the key genAI chip and components makers in SEA

Quick bytes

1️⃣ Funding in the bag
India-based Filter Capital has finalized its debut fund after securing a corpus of US$96 million. The VC firm, which was founded by former Warburg Pincus executives, is eyeing investments in SaaS and tech services firms expanding globally from the country, notably those in series B and series C stages.

2️⃣ Are CEOs the school principal of a startup?
Byju’s-owned Aakash Educational Services Limited (AESL) has named Deepak Mehrotra as its managing director and CEO. The appointment aligns with AESL’s aim to improve and widen its operations, and will enable it to leverage Mehrotra’s business expertise from his stint at Pearson India.

The move comes shortly after Byju’s and AESL withdrew their merger petition in March due to issues with governance and share-swap arrangements.

3️⃣ Big chip
Chipmaking giant Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) is planning to boost its US investment by over 60%, driving up its total to exceed US$65 billion. The Taiwan-based company is building three facilities in the US. Located in Arizona, TSMC’s inaugural plant is expected to churn out 4-nanometer chips and will start making them in 2025.

4️⃣ Exit stage left
Private equity firm Bain Capital is set to unload its entire stake in Axis Bank, which is expected to be worth nearly US$429 million. This marks Bain’s exit from the Indian bank since its first investment in 2017.