Licious raises $150 million in funding led by Singapore based Amansa Capital

Mumbai: Direct-to-consumer (D2C) fresh meat and seafood brand Licious has raised $150 million in a funding round led by Singapore based Amansa Capital, along with Kotak PE & Axis Growth Avenues AIF-I, as part of its Series F2 round, a senior company official said.

The company will use the funding to fuel its inorganic growth ambitions, expand globally and add more Tier II and Tier III cities in India as part of its network, Vivek Gupta, cofounder and CEO, Licious told ET.

The funding round comes six months after the company raised $52 million led by IIFL’s Late Stage Tech Fund and Avendus, taking the company to the Unicorn club with a post-money valuation of $1.05 billion. In July 2021, it had raised $192 million in their Series F funding Round, led by Temasek and Multiples Alternatives. The company counts funds such as Brunei Investment Agency, 3one4 Capital, Bertelsmann India Investments, Vertex Growth Fund, and Vertex Ventures Southeast Asia and India among its other investors.

“Around 30% of the new capital has come from our existing investors. This is largely a primary round,” Gupta said.

Post this deal, the founders continue to hold the largest stake in the company with the rest being held by investors such as Temasek.

Founded in 2015 by Gupta and Hanjura, Licious currently serves 17 Indian cities including Bangalore, Hyderabad, NCR, Chandigarh, Mumbai, Pune, Chennai, Jaipur, Coimbatore, Kochi, Puducherry, Vizag, Vijayawada and Kolkata. It serves over two million orders every-month with over 90% repeat consumption across markets.

The D2C market in India is at an inflection point and is expected to attain a size of more than $100 billion by 2025. The pandemic has played a major role in accelerating growth for the sector, the company said.

“Our current annualised revenue run rate stands at Rs 1000 crore. It is expected to double over the next 12 months,” Gupta said. “The market is large enough. It is just how best you can execute and grow,” he added.

The company that is operationally profitable currently, is targeting to be Ebitda (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation) break-even company in the coming year, Gupta says. “That would also take us closer to our goal of an initial public offering or IPO in two years,” he added.

The company is looking to add value through the inorganic route and believes consolidation is imminent. “We will be surely exploring inorganic opportunities. Market will see some consolidation now where the winners will be clearly defined,” Gupta said.

It is looking to plug gaps in its offline offering, further give fillip to its omnichannel play, add on products, by acquiring companies. “We may also look at entering a different category which is complementary to meat by acquiring a company in the segment,” he said.

According to industry data, 92% of the Indian meat and seafood industry is unorganised, indicating the huge opportunity that this sector has to offer. India consumes meat worth around $30 billion a year.

There has been growing investor interest in the on-demand food segment, especially in the meat and seafood category.

“Due to Licious’ focus on quality and strong execution, it successfully created a habituated and loyal customer base. We believe Licious is best positioned to serve the fresh meat and seafood needs of India,” said S Sriniwasan, MD, Kotak Investment Advisors Limited.

Licious competes with companies such as ZappFresh and FreshToHome.