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Singapore-based ecommerce enabling startup iCommerce Asia announced today it has raised US$1.4 million in a pre-series A round. The funding comes from private investors like ex-Zalora execs Cooper McGuire and Harry Markl, Carro CEO Aaron Tan, former regional VP of Salesforce Ismail Shariff, and JYSK Group CEO Janifer Yeo-Tan.

(Update, 16/12: This story has been updated with comments by iCommerce managing director Ali Ridha Madihid.)

Founder and managing director Ali Ridha Madihid tells Tech in Asia the whole amount is available to the company immediately. It will be used to boost its tech and engineering team in order to “develop robust supply chain solutions.” The team will also use the cash to expand its operations in Indonesia, since a lot of its customers’ business is growing there.

Nine-month-old iCommerce provides a full range of services relevant to ecommerce. It handles operations like warehouse and order management, cross-border customs clearance, and reverse logistics, as well as tech services like web and mobile development, hosting, SEO, and social media management.

iCommerce enables smaller ecommerce and retail businesses in the region to export goods into Indonesia.

Ali has previously managed operations for companies like SATS Cargo and Zalora. iCommerce counts several ecommerce and retail businesses as clients, including Qoo10, Charles & Keith, SeeChic, Hachi.Tech, and MatahariMall. It currently has 62 clients that include multinational companies, small businesses, and third-party logistics providers.

The startup is helping move between 5,000 to 7,000 parcels per day in Singapore and abroad, he says. It hopes to grow that number to 10,000 to 20,000 parcels per day by the second quarter of 2017. It also wants to attract global brands that may not be available in the region at the moment.

The company sees Indonesia in particular as a big opportunity, considering the country’s young population and growing ecommerce market. Its unique proposition is enabling smaller ecommerce and retail businesses in the region to export goods into Indonesia, giving them access to its promising customer base.

It’s already helping Singapore estores like homeware seller Propupstore, fitness website FitFab, and health supplement purveyor Vermillion sell their products through MatahariMall’s marketplace in Indonesia.

“With experts predicting that Indonesia will dominate ecommerce activity in Southeast Asia, the movement into the Indonesian market is definitely a strategic and necessary move for us,” Ali says in a statement. The company will look deeper into Indonesian marketplaces for such opportunities.

Converted from Singapore dollars. US$1 = S$1.43

This post Singaporean ecommerce enabler iCommerce pushes into Indonesia with $1.4m funding appeared first on Tech in Asia.

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