Licious, India’s leading fresh meat and seafood brand, has raised $25 million in a Series-D growth round, led by Nichirei Corp, one of Japan’s largest public listed conglomerates, along with existing investors 3one4 Capital, Bertelsmann India Investments, Vertex Ventures South-East Asia and India, UCLA and Sistema Asia Fund.
With plans of opening operations in the new year across seven cities, including Mumbai, Pune and Chennai, the funds will be used to further strengthen Licious’ dominant market presence, portfolio of value-added products and world-class supply chain.
The meat and seafood market is estimated at $40 billion. Abhay Hanjura and Vivek Gupta co-founded Licious as a category-first brand backed by technology.
Since its inception in 2015, Licious is built on the farm-to-fork business model, owning the entire back-end supply chain, powered by stringent cold chain control to maintain the quality and freshness of each product from the time of procurement, processing and storage to the time it reaches the end consumer.
“The confidence we continue to receive from our new and existing investors fortifies our unstinting commitment to offer world-class quality meat and seafood to our customers every time. 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. These funds will greatly aid our vision to build an Indian food brand with a global outlook,” said Hanjura and Gupta.
“With our business know-how, Nichirei and Licious can create asynergy in future,” said a spokesperson at Nichirei Corp.
“With Nichirei Corp, we are excited to have a strong partner which will help build next generation cold supply chain and other innovations in the food category. The investment is a testimonial to Gupta and Hanjura’s vision to build India’s number one fresh food brand,” said Pankaj Makkar, managing director, Bertelsmann India Investments.
Earlier this year, Licious witnessed accelerated growth in terms of reach, accessibility and product innovation. It introduced valued-added products to its fresh meat and seafood portfolio with spreads, marinades and pickles, to become the only meat and seafood brand from India to be certified with FSSC22000, one of the highest food safety certifications globally.
The company is extremely bullish about continuing to innovate and bring some of the most inventive products for its growing consumer base. It added that it continued to garner 90 per cent repeat business monthly.
