Meat focused e-commerce platform ‘Licious’ becomes India’s first D2C unicorn

Licious, an eponymous e-commerce platform for fresh meats and seafood, has raised $52 million in its Series G funding round, becoming the latest addition the long list of Indian startups that have achieved the unicorn status this year. Moreover, it has also become the first direct to consumer startup to attain this coveted spot.

The round was led by Mumbai-headquartered IIFL and Avendus.

“Even though the funding for the D2C sector has grown significantly, FMCG is still not considered the most attractive category,” said Vivek Gupta and Abhay Hanjura, founders of Licious, in a joint statement. “We expect that Licious’ unicorn status will change that. The fresh meats and seafood sector is still largely underserved and unorganised that holds a vast opportunity of $40 billion. As the category leader, we aim at paving the way for a second wave of young start-ups that can join hands in fully harnessing the potential that the industry has to offer.”

Licious allows users to buy fresh meats and seafood directly from its platform, and promises high quality fresh products thanks to its supply chain network across several Indian cities. Present in 14 Indian cities (Bangalore, Hyderabad, NCR, Chandigarh, Mumbai, Pune, Chennai, Jaipur, Coimbatore, Kochi, Puducherry, Vizag, Vijayawada and Kolkata), the startup procures meat and seafood, keeps them fresh, and delivers within hours of the order.

Moreover, it is one of the only ones of its kind, working on a sector that is highly unorganized despite India’s growing attraction towards meat based food items.

The company claims that it has grown by 500% in just one year, and has amassed over 2 million unique customers.

Now, Licious aims to expand to other markets, even entering geographies outside of India.

“Licious has disrupted the meat and seafood category, which has largely been unorganized and underserved,” said Chetan Naik of IIFL AMC. “Today, Licious is amongst the fastest growing D2C brands and is one of the few consumer businesses in India with very strong revenue retention metrics. We are excited to partner with them in this journey of creating India’s most-loved meat and seafood brand.”

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