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Second round of layoffs at Ninja Van in less than three months; 5% of Singapore staff affected

Nicole Lim
·3-min read

Ninja Van CEO Chang Wen Lai will deliver a virtual address at 11am on July 2, according to an anonymous source.

Regional logistics firm Ninja Van carried out a second round of layoffs on July 1, axing the equivalent of 5% of its employees in Singapore, according to a Ninja Van group spokesperson.

This comes less than three months after its previous round of layoffs; Ninja Van let go of 21 employees on April 29, which then represented about 10% of its regional tech team and 20% of its local tech team.

According to an anonymous tip-off to The Edge Singapore, junior staff across the group’s technology verticals, including junior software engineers, were affected in the latest round.

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Ninja Van CEO Chang Wen Lai will deliver a virtual address at 11am on July 2, according to the source.

Ninja Van says it will be focusing on its core operations and sales by cutting tech costs. “In line with the group’s direction, we have reviewed the roles within the organisation to assess its alignment with our future needs. Unfortunately, despite our efforts to minimise impact, we were unable to avoid layoffs impacting 5% of our colleagues in Singapore,” says the Ninja Van spokesperson.

The anonymous source said those impacted by the layoff exercise will be given one month of gardening leave and “mental health support”. Affected employees were sent a calendar invite for a meeting on July 1, but no company-wide emails or memos were sent.

The Ninja Van spokesperson said that employees affected in this round of layoffs will be entitled to the following:

  1. One month of severance pay per full year of employment

  2. Medical insurance and mental health support have been extended till Dec 31

  3. Garden leave until their last day working day

  4. An extension of the deadline to exercise vested options, from 30 days to one year

  5. Career transition support in the form of “either CV reviews, and interview training”

  6. Company chat and office access will be kept to facilitate proper handovers and farewell

In its prior round of layoffs in April, Tee Chee Han, group vice president of engineering, said affected employees will be given a month’s salary for each year of service with the company.

The Ministry of Manpower (MOM)’s guidelines are for companies to offer two weeks of severance pay for every year of service. However, MOM’s guidelines are not mandated by law. Instead, its website for “responsible retrenchment” states that it “strongly encourages all unionised and non-unionised employers to adhere to the advisories”.

Those impacted then had access to the office and their email accounts to facilitate handovers during the week. Subsequently, they were placed on garden leave until May 31.

They were also given a year’s extension, from 30 days, to exercise their vested options, while medical insurance and mental health support were also offered until June 30. Job placement support was also offered.

Founded in 2014 by friends Lai Chang Wen, Boxian Tan and Shaun Chong, Ninja Van engages in last-mile logistics and package delivery. It has warehouses across Southeast Asia, in Singapore, Myanmar, Malaysia, Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam.

The group’s latest round of funding was announced in September 2021, in which they raised US$578 million ($773.5 million) from participants including Alibaba and B Capital Group, the venture capital firm set up by Meta’s co-founder Eduardo Saverin.

In March, Ninja Van announced that it had put plans for an initial public offering (IPO) on the back burner. The group will focus on improving its profitability before going ahead with its IPO, said CEO Lai Chang Wen in a press event back then.

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