Licious raises $30 million in funding

Bengaluru-based meat and seafood brand Licious on Monday said that it has raised $30 million in a Series-E round led by Singapore-based Vertex Growth Fund, along with existing investors 3one4 Capital, Bertelsmann India Investments, Vertex Ventures Southeast Asia and India, and Sistema Asia Fund.

The fund will be utilised to ramp up its geographic presence across new and existing markets, boost its product portfolio with new launches in the ready-to-eat segment, and strengthen its supply chain, the company said in a statement. It will also invest in upgrading technology, and in human resources. Last year, in December, the startup had raised $25 million in funding.

“The results and the overall industry impact that we have been able to achieve demonstrates the increasing maturity of the market and that it is at the cusp of a major transformation,” said Vivek Gupta and Abhay Hanjura, co-founders, Licious.

“The fact that 92% of the Indian meat and seafood industry is still unorganised, indicates the huge, underserved community that exists, as well as the opportunity that this sector has to offer. The traditional meat and seafood industry are in dire need of tech intervention, quality standardisation, and a skilled talent pool. Licious is working towards creating these differentiators,” the co-founders added.

Founded in 2015 by Hanjura and Gupta, Licious has managed to crack the usual customer pain points of quality, hygiene, freshness, and convenience in a highly unorganised and underserved meat and seafood market in India, pegged at $40 billion.

Currently, Licious has a presence across seven cities and processes more than 17,000 orders a day. The company said that it has clocked in a growth rate of 300% year-on-year and is looking to touch in excess of ₹1000 crore in revenue by 2023.

Tam Hock Chuan, managing partner, Vertex Growth said “Licious is building a company and brand that is synonymous with the freshest meat and meat products. We are confident that the team’s capabilities and technologies it has established across its entire supply chain will achieve this and allow Licious to deliver value to consumers in India.”

Operated by Delightful Gourmet Pvt. Ltd, Licious operates its own cold chain and the entire backend supply chain to maintain the quality and freshness of products from the time of procurement, processing, storage to the time it reaches the end consumer. Currently it has presence across Bengaluru, Mumbai, Pune, Delhi- NCR , Hyderabad Chennai and Chandigarh. The company claims to deliver product to customers within two hours of ordering either through its website or app.