Updated: Licious raises $192 Mn in Series F round

Updated story: Licious today announced that it has raised $192 million in its  Series F funding round led by Temasek and Multiples Private Equity. Brunei Investment Agency and existing investors 3one4 Capital, Bertelsmann India Investments, Vertex Growth Fund, and Vertex Ventures Southeast Asia and India have also participated in this round.

Previous Version: Meat and seafood brand Licious has scooped up a new round after a gap of 18 months, raising $65 million from Multiples Alternate Asset Management, Brunei Investment Agency, Vertex Ventures and a few others.

The board of Licious has passed a special resolution to allot 100 equity shares and 8,879 Series F preference shares at an issue price of Rs 5,22,719.05 per share to raise Rs 469.34 crore or $65 million, regulatory filings show.

Multiples Alternate Asset Management has invested $32 million followed by Brunei Investment Agency and Vertex Ventures which put in $15 million and $10 million respectively. Bertelsmann Netherland, 3one4 Capital and angels including Akshay Ghulati and Narshing Dass Makkar have invested the remaining amount.

The regulatory filings also show a secondary transfer of shares from Mayfield India Ltd. and Mayur Mukundbhai Desai to Multiples Private Equity Fund.

This takes the total funding in Licious to $160 million to date which includes $30 million in its Series E round led by Singapore-based Vertex Growth Fund in December of 2019.

It’s worth noting that Licious was reportedly in talks with multiple venture capital firms to raise a fresh round at around $800 million valuation.

According to Fintrackr’s estimates, Licious has been valued at nearly Rs 4,375 crore or $600 million during the Series F round. Post allotment, co-founders Abhay Hanjura and Vivek Gupta’s collective shareholding has been diluted from 23.8% to 21.2%.

New investors Multiples Private Equity Fund and Brunei Investment Agency have acquired 10.55% and 2.51% stake respectively. Existing investors Vertex and Bertelsmann control 11.31% and 8.1% stake respectively while 3one4 Capital holds 8.97% stake.

Bengaluru-based Licious operates in 16 cities, including Bengaluru, NCR, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Chandigarh. The six-year-old company has built a farm-to-fork model including handling the entire back-end supply chain. Early last year, it had also forayed into the ready-to-eat segment. 

FreshToHome, also Bengaluru-based, has emerged as the biggest competitor to Licious. The company had scooped up $121 million in its Series C round in October 2020. Zapfresh, BBDaily, MeatRoot and Easymeat also compete with Licious in this space.

Update: The story has been updated with additional information after Licious shared a press release with Entrackr.