SINGAPORE - Locally-based logistics and selling platform Anchanto has raised US$4 million ($5.45 million) in the first round of its ongoing Series C investment, led by Telkom Indonesia's corporate venture capital arm, MDI Ventures.

This follows a Series B round where Anchanto received funding from Transcosmos Inc Japan and Luxasia Group in May 2017.

In a press release on Wednesday (July 4), Anchanto said that the proceeds of the fund-raising will be used to expand its market outreach and to build a stronger presence in South-east Asia.

Anchanto's platforms connects e-commerce sellers, brands, retailers and warehousing & fulfillment service providers to over 70 e-commerce sales channels.Through its platforms, companies and small- and medium enterprises (SMEs) can manage core e-commerce business operations such as warehousing services, catalogue, pricing, multi-channel selling, logistics, and local & cross-border shipping.

Over the last 12 months, sellers across the region have processed more than 12 million orders totaling more than US$258 million in gross merchandise volume through both Anchanto's SelluSeller.com and eCommerce SaaS Warehouse Management System (eWMS) solutions, it said.

Anchanto founder, Vaibhav Dabhade, said: "Collaboration with Telkom Indonesia and MDI's investment is the foundation of Anchanto's Indonesia Strategy. Through this collaboration, we aim to enable thousands of Indonesian SMEs, micro-SMEs, and enterprise businesses to join the e-Commerce bandwagon. Essentially, we are going to empower Indonesian entrepreneurs to scale their businesses in Southeast Asia's biggest e-Commerce market."

Telkom Indonesia has a user base of more than 170 million, along with digital platforms, mobile payment and business solutions.

Nicko Widjaja, chief executive officer of MDI Ventures, said: "This investment complements our efforts in e-commerce sector, tackling different market segments of Indonesia's logistics landscape with different approaches. Logistic technologies have an enormous potential for improving the e-commerce landscape in Indonesia. As products become more diverse, e-commerce will need to optimize the supply chain to be delivered as quickly as possible to the customers."

Anchanto's eWMS system is well-placed to help synchronize warehouse management, transportation, and analytics systems, he added.