The thing about ninja is that they’re nearly invisible, which might be why the terms behind Parcelninja’s acquisition by international logistics company Imperial are shrouded in mystery. Or maybe it’s just the usual corporate secrecy or the terms of the contract or whatever.

Parcelninja is a South African startup that has won plenty of acclaim in the delivery space here at home — so much so that the company attracted the attention of logistics giant Imperial, which snapped it up in a recent deal.

Corporate ninja

The acquisition was announced in Imperial’s interim results for the last six months of 2020. Just the existence of the deal was made available, but none of the specifics is in evidence. Just like a real ninja…

The company’s financial results explained that the “…acquisition will provide specialised warehousing and distribution management in e-commerce, direct to consumers and to informal markets.”

“Enabled with leading software, processes and people capabilities in South Africa, Parcelninja provides fulfilment in both business-to-consumer and business-to-business channels, including the informal market, supported by the management and optimisation of courier parcel deliveries”

The reason for the acquisition was at least detailed. Imperial intends to use the locally-established outfit to accelerate its push “…into last-mile distribution, e-commerce fulfilment, footprint and scale in Africa.” We only hope that going properly corporate doesn’t have a detrimental effect on the company. Ninja who works for corporations in popular fiction tends to be tasked with all manner of assassination and other unpleasant work. That couldn’t happen here… could it?