Founded in 2013 by Terence Murphy, Justin Drennan and
Ryan Drennan, South African ecommerce startup, ParcelNinja has been acquired by Imperial Logistics, a JSE-listed logistics company. In a shareholder statement published on Tuesday (23 February), Imperial said that the deal took effect from 1 February 2021.
“Enabled with leading software, processes and people capabilities in South Africa, ParcelNinja provides fulfilment in both B2C and B2B channels including the informal market, supported by the management and optimisation of courier parcel deliveries,” Imperial said.
“This acquisition supports Imperial’s strategic ambitions to accelerate our digital capabilities and expand our logistics and market access services into last mile distribution, e-commerce fulfilment, footprint and scale in Africa, while ensuring local relevance for our clients and principals.”
Here Is What You Need To Know
- Although the exact value of the deal was not disclosed, ParcelNinja was acquired by Imperial at the same time as the Johannesburg-based pharmaceutical manufacturing and healthcare services company Pharmafrique, which trades as Kiara Health.
- Both deals were put at 120 million rand ($8.2 million).
- The total amount of funding raised by the startup during the course of its startup journey stands at $1.7m and that was in 2015. The investment mostly came from C5 Holdings, the parent company of C5 Capital, a London-based specialist data and cybersecurity fund manager. C5 Holdings invested R20 million.
Why The Acquisition?
What ParcelNinja is doing aligns with the mandate of Imperial Logistics, which recently invested and partnered with the East Africa-focused logistics startup Lori Systems in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region. The partnership was aimed at developing Africa’s road freight industry through digital innovation and enablement. The deal with Lori Systems was concluded in November last year.
Imperial has also announced that its $20 million Imperial Innovation Fund now has five actively-managed portfolio companies:
- Field Intelligence, a digital pharmaceutical distributor operating in Nigeria and Kenya.
- Shypple, a digital freight forwarder operating between Asia and Europe.
- RedBird, a provider of rapid diagnostic tests to pharmacies in Ghana.
- Lori, a digital road freight exchange operating in East and West Africa that has also partnered with Imperial to launch in SADC during 2021.
- An investment in a cross-border digital logistics service provider serving e-commerce merchants in MENA.
A Look At ParcelNinja
Founded in 2013 by Justin Drennan, Ryan Drennan and Terence Murphy — the same entrepreneurs behind WantItAll — Parcelninja launched its first commercial services in October 2014. It offers South African online shops an affordable outsourcing solution for all their fulfilment needs.
Basically, ParcelNinja assists you by helping you to outsource your warehouse and delivery process. You just have to install the ParcelNinja plugin for your existing ecommerce platform (Jumia, for example). Drop your stock off at the startup’s smart warehouse location. The startup will then shop around to get you the best price from multiple couriers in real time. Once an order is placed, it gets picked in its warehouse, packed and branded or custom-packaged and collected by courier. Real-time tracking is available throughout the entire fulfillment journey. Its analytics engine also predicts how much stock you’ll need. Parcel ninja takes care of your logistics headache giving you the freedom to grow as an ecommerce company.
Charles Rapulu Udoh
Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based lawyer who has advised startups across Africa on issues such as startup funding (Venture Capital, Debt financing, private equity, angel investing etc), taxation, strategies, etc. He also has special focus on the protection of business or brands’ intellectual property rights ( such as trademark, patent or design) across Africa and other foreign jurisdictions.
He is well versed on issues of ESG (sustainability), media and entertainment law, corporate finance and governance.
He is also an award-winning writer