Licious raises $30 Mn in Series E round after spending $20 Mn in FY19

Fresh meat and seafood brand Licious has scooped up $30 million in Series E round, maintaining its lead as the most funded startup in this space. Led by Singapore-based Vertex Growth Fund, the funding round also saw participation from existing investors - 3one4 Capital, Bertelsmann India Investments, Vertex Ventures Southeast Asia and India, and Sistema Asia Fund.

Licious had previously raised $25 million Series D round in December 2018 and $25 million Series C round in September 2018. The Bengaluru-based startup has raised close to $95 million till date, which includes $1 million seed round in 2015, $3.5 million Series A round in 2016 and $10 million Series B round in 2017.

Led by Abhay Hanjura and Vivek Gupta, Licious will invest the fresh proceeds in expanding into newer cities, augment capabilities in the existing market, enhancing the hybrid model and launching new products in the ready-to-eat segment.

Currently, Licious operates in nine cities, including Bengaluru, NCR, Hyderabad, Chandigarh, Panchkula, Mohali, Mumbai, Pune, and Chennai.

Licious has built a farm-to-fork business model handling entire back-end supply chain - Right from procurement, processing, storage to reach the end consumer.

With over 2,000 employees base, the company claims to deliver the order within two hours and process more than 17,000 orders a day.

According to the company’s statement to several media, it targets Rs 1,000 crore in annual revenue by 2023. However, Licious last financial report reflects that it earned Rs 69.43 crore in revenue from operations in FY19, a 150% increase from Rs 27.79 crore in the previous fiscal.

During the period, the company has burnt Rs 148.5 crore ~ $20 million as total expenditure, which is two times more than what it spent in FY18. As a result, the losses have been surged by 118.5%, amounting to Rs 75.14 crore in FY19 from Rs 34.38 crore in FY18.

So, achieving Rs 1,000 crore in annual revenue in the next four years will require more focus while expanding operations and controlling losses.

Besides, Zappfresh, EasyMeat, and MeatRoot, Licious has stiff competition with another Bengaluru-based startup - FreshToHome. Backed by the likes of Iron Pillar, CE Ventures and Joe Hirao, FreshToHome is expanding its services in Bengaluru. Apart from seafood and meat, the firm had also started milk delivery service in the city and acquired Doodhwala’s customer base for the same.