Meat and seafood brand Licious raises $25 million

Bengaluru-based meat and seafood brand Licious on Monday said that it has raised $25 million in a Series-D growth round led by Japanese conglomerate Nichirei Corp, along with existing investors 3one4 Capital, Bertelsmann India Investments, Vertex Ventures Southeast Asia and India, UCLA, and Sistema Asia Fund.

The fund will be utilised to ramp up its geographic presence, boost its product portfolio, and strengthen its supply chain, the company said in a statement. The startup had raised $25 million in funding in September, too.

The online fresh meat and seafood company had recently announced its plans to enter Mumbai and Pune by year end. Currently it has presence across Delhi-NCR (National Capital Region), Bengaluru and Hyderabad.

In a highly unorganised and underserved meat and seafood market in India, pegged at $40 billion, Licious has managed to crack the usual customer pain points of quality, hygiene, freshness and convenience in a short span of time. The startup was founded in 2015 by Abhay Hanjura and Vivek Gupta.

“Building a transformational and category leading food brand in an extremely complex environment requires conviction and inventive thinking, and we are glad we are on the right path,” said Abhay Hanjura and Vivek Gupta, co-founders, Licious.

Licious operates its own cold chain to maintain the quality and freshness of products from the time of procurement, processing, storage to the time it reaches the end customer. Licious claims to enjoy 90% repeat business monthly.

“With our individual experiences and business know-how, Nichirei and Licious can create beautiful synergy in future,” said a spokesperson at Nichirei Corp., one of the leading players in the food industry in Japan with businesses such as food processing, food trading, food logistics and bioscience.

Licious has products ranging from its fresh meat and seafood portfolio to spreads, marinades, pickles and others.