Licious allots equity shares under ESOP to its employee welfare trust; topline jumps 90% in FY20

Fresh meat and seafood brand Licious, which has been in talks for a larger funding round, has allotted fresh shares to its employees’ welfare trust under ESOP.

Licious has allotted 400 equity shares at an issue price of Rs 301,211.45 per share worth Rs 12.04 crore to Licious Employees Welfare Trust, regulatory filings show. With the fresh allotment, the company joins Paytm, CRED, FarEye and Nykaa who have either expanded their ESOPs pool or offered liquidity options in 2021.

The move will bolster the confidence of the Licious workforce that has faced challenges during the Covid-19 pandemic. The development also comes at a time when Licious is reportedly in talks with several new and existing investors to raise around $80 million in a fresh round at a valuation of $800 million, and responded to by the company as market speculation.

For Licious, the last funding round came in December 2019 when it raised $30 million in its Series E round led by Singapore-based Vertex Growth Fund at a valuation of $300 million.

The anticipated funding round will also make Licious the most valuable brand in this segment which includes FreshtoHome and ZappFresh. Bengaluru-based FreshtoHome had raised $121 million in its Series B round in October 2019 at an estimated valuation of $400 million. 

Floated by Abhay Hanjura and Vivek Gupta, Licious has built a farm-to-fork business model with complete control on procurement, processing and storage. Licious operates in 14 cities, including Bengaluru, NCR, Hyderabad, Chandigarh, Mumbai, Pune, and Chennai.

The annual financial result for FY20 filed by Licious shows that it recorded a 90% upsurge in its top line to Rs 131.82 crore in FY20 from Rs 69.43 crore in FY19. Its total expenses amounted to Rs 283.8 crore while losses reduced by 66.65% to Rs 146.3 crore in FY20.