SMU alumnus Lai Chang Wen started logistics company Ninja Van in 2014 together with his friends Shaun Chong and Boxian Tan. In September last year, the company raised US$578 million (S$797 million) from investors. It was its biggest fund raising since it started in 2014 and it took the company's valuation to over US$1 billion, making it yet another start-up to become a "unicorn". Ninja Van has its roots in a clothing company called Marcella that Chang Wen started in 2010 while studying finance at SMU. He had always wanted to go into business. It was the reason he passed up a government scholarship. He and Boxian soon realised that Marcella wasn't going to go far and decided that logistics – not fashion – was what they should be focused on.