Licious: Online meat startup is India’s first D2C unicorn with $52M funding

Bengaluru-based direct-to-consumer (D2C) meat and seafood brand Licious has raised $52 million funding in a Series G fund raise, led by IIFL AMC. The latest funding round helped the company to cross $1 billion. This has made Licious reach the unicorn list. It is the 29th company in 2021 to reach prestigious unicorn status.

According to the reports, this huge milestone will assist Licious in competing with its competitors such as ZappFresh, FreshToHome, Swiggy, and BigBasket. This will surely provide an edge for Licious to compete better in the market. 

The founders Vivek Gupta and Abhay Hanjura stated that Licious will take concrete steps towards building a sustainable business model that will redefine the animal protein industry in India.

Additionally, the founders also mentioned that – 

“Even though the funding for the D2C sector has grown significantly, FMCG is still not considered the most attractive category. We expect that Licious’ Unicorn status will change that”.

Key highlights:

• Licious is the 29th startup to achieve unicorn status in 2021
• The latest funding will provide an edge to compete better with the existing competitors.
• Licious serves over 1 million orders every month
• Fresh meat and seafood is still an underserved and unorganized sector that holds an opportunity of $40 billion.

Licious believes that the fresh meat and seafood industry still has untapped potential and holds vast opportunities. These opportunities may be around $40 billion. They aim at paving the way for young start-ups to join them in order to disrupt and fully harness this opportunity the industry has to offer.

The D2C (direct-to-consumer) unicorn also stated that they aim to invest in technology for chain excellence, product innovation, talent, and vendor-partner upgrades.

Diving into Licious

Licious gave ESOPs to nearly 1,000 employees, including blue-collars, earlier this year. This was followed by a Rs 30 crore buyback in August. Temasek & Multiples led a $192 After a bad meat-buying experience, Hanjura, a Bangalore University science graduate, and 

In addition, the firm has declared its commitment to comply with global environmental, social, and governance standards, setting new sustainability and governance norms.

Last year, the firm, which is spread across 14 Indian cities, had extraordinary growth of over 500%. To date, Licious has delivered to more than 2 million unique consumers.

Past, present, and future

Gupta, a chartered accountant, founded Licious. They began their service in 2015 after successfully testing its technology and business approach. In the same year, former Infosys executive T V Mohandas Pai and Kanwaljit Singh, co-founder of venture capital firm Fireside Ventures, made an undisclosed investment. Customers may place orders using the licious app, online, or over the phone with the company.

It currently serves over 1 million orders each month, with over 90% of customers returning to the company. It has grown to 3,500 members, including personnel from many professions and roles.

Raw and fresh meat and seafood, marinades, and ready-to-eat foods all take it into account. It is expected to disrupt every food sector, according to Licious. Licious owner claims it has been able to tackle the prevalent customer pain points of quality, hygiene, freshness, and convenience in a sustainable manner in a severely underserved market worth $40 billion today.

Licious, which is based on the farm-to-fork business model, has complete control over the back-end supply chain, which is backed by strict cold chain management to ensure product quality and freshness. This begins with the acquisition, processing, and storage of the product until it reaches the final user.

Over the last five years, the company has grown by 300 percent, serving over 3 million packs of world-class meat products to customers in Bengaluru, Hyderabad, NCR, Chandigarh, Mumbai, Pune, Chennai, Jaipur, Coimbatore, Kochi, Puducherry, Vizag, Vijayawada, and Kolkata.

Final words

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