Founded in the year 2014, Ninja Van, a Singapore-based logistics startup, has secured US$279 million in series D round of funding in fresh funding from some new as well as existing investors.

Investors include Geopost, B Capital Group, Carmenta Capital, Bangkok Bank, Brunei’s state-owned Zamrud Sovereign Wealth Fund, Monk Hill Ventures, Grab, Thai telco Intouch, and Golden Gate Ventures Growth Fund.

The company is already operating in six South-East Asian countries, including Singapore, Vietnam, Philipines, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Thailand.

Earlier this year, in February, the company officially announced to expand its services into Brunei in the year 2020. Substantial investment by Zamrud in series D financing round is in line with the company’s plans.

Ninja Van business model overview:

Key partners:

• Investors
• Local e-Commerce retailers such as Love Bonito, Fashion Valet
• E-Commerce giants such as AceTurtle, Zalora
• Robotics technologies such as Greyorange
• Ninja-Point partners: Brick, and Mortar retail stores

Key resources:

• Proprietory technology
• Physical warehouses
• Human Resource
• Crowd-source

Key activities:

• Logistics sorting
• Last-mile delivery
• Door-to-door delivery
• Automated services such as Ninja collect
• Personalized delivery

Key channels:

• Ninja Vans & staff
• Drivers with own fleet
• Ninja drivers (crowd-sourced)
• Ninja points

Customer segments:

• Paying: e-commerce, and retailers
• Non- paying end beneficiaries: e-commerce, and customers (anyone)

Cost structure:

• Lite prepaid:
• For less than 250 parcels per month
• You have to pay for each parcel at the time of placing your shipping order.
• Pro postpaid:
• For more than 250 parcels per month
• You have to pay consolidated for all your shipped parcels, at the end of each month.

Revenue streams:

• Investment in technology
• Investment in infrastructure: warehouse and expansion
• Recruitment of drivers
• Business expansion

Value proposition:

• Quick doorstep deliveries
• Convenience for end customers
• Premium service at affordable prices

Key features:

• Delivery options for every budget:

It offers a range of delivery options such as same day, next day, express, and standard delivery.

• Flexible parcel pickups:

It offers premium doorstep delivery and standard delivery with an extensive network of nearby drop-off points.

• Cash on delivery service:

It offers cash-on-delivery services in all told areas.

• Extensive service coverage within the region:

Ninja Van is the only last-mile courier service in South East Asia, with almost 100% service coverage in the region. You can expect consistent, high-quality service across all countries they operate.

• Latest technology:

Technology is at the center of Ninja Van. It offers API integrations, customized routing solutions, bulk upload of orders via CSV, and a complete system tailored consistent with your needs.

• Customer support:

Ninja Van offers free re-delivery options, one-click delivery re-scheduling, and self-collection services to ensure customer satisfaction.

What makes Ninja Van be outstanding in the market?

Ninja Van provides last-mile logistics solutions for e-commerce businesses across the entire South-East Asian region. It offers real-time tracking features to ensure the seamless delivery of packages. The company optimizes the route for drivers to save fuel and ensure on-time delivery.

Technology is what makes Ninja Van stand apart from the competition. Let’s have a look at, what technology it uses:

➢ Cloud-based billing and resource management:

Ninja Van uses Google Cloud for flexibility and scalability of managing resources and operations.

Google Cloud allows adjusting CPU and memory as per the needs. It uses autoscale node pools instead of vertical scaling, so, one can specify the minimum and maximum number of deployments based on CPU utilization. Monitoring of the Kubernetes cluster on existing pods is also possible, and one can assign more pods if needed.

Through, the Horizontal Pod Autoscaler, Ninja Van can adjust its workloads and scale down when resources are no longer needed to reduce the overhead costs. In case of an unplanned surge in traffic, the Ninja Van website/app can smoothly handle the 10 times more traffic than the normal one.

➢ Increased productivity through Google Kubernetes Engine:

Automating features on Google Kubernetes Engine eliminate the need for manual work to deploy applications on the right server with enough CPU cores or RAM and reduces the space for configuration errors.

It also offers a buffer for emergency situations like power outages and has the capacity to migrate the application from one physical host to another without affecting performance.

Kubernetes has significantly improved the performance of the Ninja Van app/website and ensured a smooth UX.

➢ Improving operational efficiency and UX with data cache and data analytics:

Ninja Van mines historical data for capacity planning and to find hidden efficiencies. For example, based on previous orders and driver efficiency, the company may hire or re-organize drivers to ensure timely delivery.

Ninja Van collects around 100GB data a day and uses Cloud Dataproc to access such data in cloud storage. Cloud Dataproc smoothly integrates with big data tools such as Presto and Jupyter to optimize data querying and ensures machine learning compatibility.

How to make a logistic management app like Ninja Van and features to consider:

Businesses need to have a proper channelized system for logistics management. To develop automated logistics management software like Ninja van, include interactive features listed below for better UX:

➢ Real-time driver and vehicle tracking:

Nowadays, fleet owners can easily opt for various freight technology tools at a time. The only way you can ensure that forgery is not happening is to access the details about vehicles and drivers in real-time by GPRS in logistics management software.

➢ Assigning order pick-up to the nearest driver:

This feature automatically assigns dispatch of the order to the nearest drivers via logistics management software. That helps business owners to manage multiple orders seamlessly and avoid any delay in delivery.

➢ In-app chat/call:

An in-app chat/call option helps in enhancing communication within the network of the fleet. Also, it helps drivers to contact the fleet manager in case of an emergency. On the other hand, it allows customers to solve their queries regarding the order.

➢ Regular inspection of drivers and vehicles:

A regular record of driver’s log helps business owners to handle the tasks effectively, such as the number of completed trips and time taken for the deliveries, client review, performance evaluation, etc.

Similarly, regular fleet inspection and maintenance help to gain information such as the total distance covered, fuel indicators, pressure checks, mileage, and if any, details of rash driving, etc., for better management.

➢ Route optimization and live delivery statistics:

Route optimization features help managers to scrutinize the route taken by the delivery executives and assign them efficient routes if needed, to improve their productivity. After all, parcel deliveries form a vital part of UX as it builds customer perception of the company.

For more transparency and control over the supply chain, you can go for live delivery statistics. For example, if the vehicle reaches the desired delivery location, you will get an instant notification.

How Coruscate can help you to make a difference:

When it comes to the development of any software for your business, hiring the right tech partner is the first and foremost important decision to make.

Along with a good idea, collaborating with Coruscate will give you the edge and success. The appropriate frameworks and the coding standards followed by us, you will get improved asset utilization and better customer satisfaction with scalable, robust, secure, and automated logistics management software with interactive UI/UX.

Coruscate has already delivered many robust solutions in this field. If you are ready to roll your business with us, Contact us now to have a personalized quote and live demo for your idea.