D2C meat and seafood brand Licious has raised $150 million in Series F2 within 6 months of becoming a unicorn, at a valuation of $1.6 billion. The round was led by Singapore based Amansa Capital, along with Kotak PE & Axis Growth Avenues AIF – I.
Existing investors have also participated in the round along with prominent angel investors including Nithin Kamath and Nikhil Kamath of Zerodha, BoAt’s Aman Gupta and Haresh Chawla, Partner, True North. Avendus acted as the exclusive financial advisor to Licious for the transaction, reported Business Standard.
The company will use the fresh capital to invest in technological intervention that will help category development and improve overall customer experience. Part of the funds will also be deployed for strategic acquisition and expansion of the brand’s reach.
“Today, Licious is the highest valued D2C start-up in India. This valuation is a direct outcome of the value that we have created for our stakeholders- investments made towards building the category have borne us rich dividends and have propelled growth for the company and its people,” said Vivek Gupta and Abhay Hanjura, co-founders of Licious.
Founded in 2015 by Vivek Gupta and Abhay Hanjura, Licious built India’s first farm to fork model with its proprietary tech-driven supply chain and introduced global standards of meats and seafood for Indian consumers. Farmers and fishermen were benefited through training on global practices, a fair price for their produce and a steady stream of income.
Present in raw and fresh meat and seafood, marinades and ready-to-eat categories, Licious said it is set to disrupt this highly underserved market, which is estimated at $40 billion today.
“Due to Licious’s focus on quality and strong execution, its successfully creating a habituated and loyal customer base. We believe under the leadership of Abhay and Vivek, Licious is best positioned to serve the fresh meat and seafood need of India,” said S Sriniwasan, MD at Kotak Investment Advisors Ltd. Kotak has invested in Licious through Kotak Pre-IPO Opportunities Fund which has a total corpus of ₹2,000 crore.
In just 6 years Licious has witnessed a 300 per cent growth and has served over three million packs of meat products to consumers across 17 Indian cities. Licious serves over 2 million orders every month with over 90 per cent repeat consumption across markets. Licious is currently, a 5000 members strong team with employees, across different disciplines and functions.
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