Ushers in festive season with entry into its 8th market in India & the 2nd one in TN
Aims at tapping into the Rs 140 crore opportunity that Coimbatore market has to offer
Chennai, NFAPost: Continuing the journey ahead, Licious, India’s largest fresh meat, meat products and seafood brand, today announced its foray into Coimbatore market.
This will be Licious’ 8th market nationally and the 4th in the southern part of the country – consolidating its leadership position in the fresh meat & seafood segment.
Since their inception in 2015 the company has created a seamless and convenient meat-buying experience for people across the country & currently serves a million orders per month.
India’s meat market is valued at $40 billion, with over 73% of the total population being meat-eaters. Coimbatore offers a pronounced market prospect with its globalized affluence and with 98% of meat-eaters.
Delectable food-fare
The city’s rich culinary culture and proximity to the coastline has prepped Coimbatorians’ palate for high quality and delectable food-fare that is in complete synergy with Licious’ offering.
Commenting on the expansion, Licious Co-Founders Abhay Hanjura and Vivek Gupta said the company is extremely happy to be launching operations in Coimbatore.
“From Chettinad Chicken Curry to the Kongu style Aattu Kari Kuzhambu and Nanjil Fish Curry, the Tamil food palate is peppered with delicious meat -dominant cuisine. The vibrant culinary scene and diverse population, we believe, is a perfect fit for Licious’ product offerings, which will add immense value to the food culture of Coimbatore,” said Licious Co-Founders Abhay Hanjura and Vivek Gupta.
Licious Co-Founders Abhay Hanjura and Vivek Gupta said the company aims at leveraging its rich experience, expertise and knowledge of meat and seafood to solve the prevailing customer pain points of quality, hygiene, freshness and convenience that is pertinent to this market.
“We are excited about introducing our transformational and category leading brand here,” said Licious Co-Founders Abhay Hanjura and Vivek Gupta.
Product offering
Licious brings a total of 119 product offerings to Coimbatore, including preferred cuts of fresh meat and seafood, ready-to-cook delicacies like Chicken Chettinad roast, Kozhi Milagu Varuval, Mutton Chukka, Prawns Masala and Varutha Meen and the company’s famous chicken and prawn spreads in the ready-to-eat category.
As a category-first brand backed by technology, Licious’ greatest USP has been superior quality product, which has been giving them a consistent repeat order rate of 90% since the 1st year of operation. To ensure a coherent product standard and uncompromised customer service, the company owns and controls the entire supply chain.
This farm to fork business model also happens to be the only meat and seafood brand from India to be certified with FSSC22000, one of the highest food safety certifications in the world. Currently, the company is delivering 1 mn orders per month. Licious has raised a total of $94 million till date, the last round being in December 2019.
TV Mohandas Pai, Vertex Growth Fund, Nichirei Corp, 3one4 Capital, Bertelsmann India Investments, UCLA, Sistema Asia Fund, Mayfield Capital, Sistema Asia Fund, Korea based Neoplux Technology fund, Innoven Capital are some of the investors.
Underserved market
Founded by Abhay Hanjura and Vivek Gupta, Licious is a consumer food company, focussed at delighting the world with an unmatched range of meat & meat products. Present in raw & fresh meat and seafood, mariandes and ready-to-eat categories, Licious is set to disrupt every food category that need a meaty intervention.
In a highly underserved market, which is estimated at $40 billion today, Licious as a category-first brand backed by technology, has been able to solve the prevailing customer pain points of quality, hygiene, freshness and convenience in a sustainable manner.
Built on the farm to fork business model, Licious owns 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, storage to the time it reaches the end consumer. In just 5 years Licious has witnessed a 300% growth and has served over three million packs of world-class meat products to consumers across Bangalore, Hyderabad, NCR, Chandigarh, Mumbai, Pune and Chennai. Licious serves over 1mn orders every-month with over 90% repeat consumption across markets.
Licious received a seed investment of ₹6.9 crore ($1 million) from T.V. Mohandas Pai, Manipal Global Education Services and entrepreneur Kanwaljit Singh. In 2016, the company raised a Series A round of funding of about ₹21 crore ($3 million) from Mayfield Capital and 3one4 Capital.
Series of investment
In the first quarter of 2017, Licious received a Series B round of investment with ₹69 crore ($10 million) from existing and new investors, including Mayfield India, 3one4 Capital, Sistema Asia Fund and Neoplux Technology fund. In September 2018, Licious raised ₹174 crore ($25 million) in a Series C round of investment.
The round was led by Bertelsmann India Investments and Vertex Ventures Southeast Asia & India (part of the Vertex Holdings network of funds). The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), also invested in the company along with existing investors Mayfield India, 3one4 Capital, Sistema Asia Fund and InnoVen Capital.
In December 2018, Licious raised another ₹174 crore ($25 million) in a Series D round of investment. The round was led by Japan’s publicly listed conglomerate Nichirei Group. Existing investors 3one4 Capital, Bertelsmann India Investment, Vertex Ventures Southeast Asia and India, UCLA and Sistema Asia Fund were other contributors. In December 2019, Licious raised $30 million in its Series E round, led by Singapore-based Vertex Growth Fund.
Several existing investors returned, including 3one4 Capital, Bertelsmann India Investments, Nichirei Corp, Vertex Ventures Southeast Asia and India, and Sistema Asia Fund. Licious currently has over 2500 members strong team with employees across different disciplines and functions.
