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Online meat and seafood seller, Licious, has raised a Series D round of $25 million (Rs 177 crore) led by one of Japan’s largest public listed conglomerates, Nichirei Corp, along with existing investors 3one4 Capital, Bertelsmann India Investments, Vertex Ventures Southeast Asia and India, UCLA and Sistema Asia Fund.
The Bengaluru-based company had raised a similar amount in September this year, led by Bertelsmann India. With the fresh round, the total funding raised by the company since its inception in 2015 is pegged at $64 million (Rs 454 crore).
The funds will be used for expansion of operations. The company plans to open operations in seven cities including Mumbai, Pune and Chennai, and strengthen its product portfolio and supply chain, the company said in a statement.
With a vision to disrupt the highly under-served meat and seafood market, which is estimated at $40 billion today, Abhay Hanjura and Vivek Gupta started Licious as a category-first brand backed by technology. Licious claims to have solved the prevailing customer pain points of quality, hygiene, freshness and convenience when it comes to purchasing meat and seafood in a sustainable manner.
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 its founders, Abhay Hanjura and Vivek Gupta, in a statement.
“Safety and quality has always been the cornerstone for Nichirei since its inception and it is wonderful to share the same philosophy with Licious. With our individual experiences and business knowhow, Nichirei and Licious can create beautiful synergy in future,” said spokesperson at Nichirei Corp.
Licious claims to have a 90 per cent repeat business monthly.
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