Big South African ecommerce deal with Imperial buying Parcelninja
JSE listed Imperial announced that it has acquired Parcelninja on 1 February 2021 in one of the largest ecommerce deals in South Africa.
Parcelninja was founded in 2013 by Justin Drennan, Ryan Drennan, and Terence Murphy and it launched its first commercial services in October 2014.
It offers South African online shops an affordable outsourcing solution for all their fulfilment needs.
They integrate with most existing e-commerce engines and offer smart product warehousing, picking and packing, courier optimisation, and real-time reporting.
Parcelninja is therefore a logical fit for Imperial and helps the company to achieve its ambition of strengthening its digital offerings.
“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,” Imperial said.
Terence Murphy, Ryan Drennan, and Justin Drennan
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.
The Lori Systems deal was concluded in November 2020 which gives it access to cutting-edge e-logistics technology solutions across Africa.
Lori Systems is the leading e-logistics platform in Africa and co-ordinates haulage in frontier markets.
Imperial said its partnership with Lori Systems in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region will help to develop Africa’s road freight industry through digital innovation and enablement.
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