Fresh animal protein e-com platform Licious bags USD 150 Mn in funding

Licious, a Bengaluru-based start-up that offers fresh seafood, meat, and other fresh animal protein online, has reportedly raised USD 150 million from a group of late-stage investors in what seems to be a prelude to the start-up’s IPO (initial public offering). Licious became the country's first D2C (direct-to-consumer) brand to become a unicorn last year.

Kotak PE, Amansa Capital of Singapore, and Axis Growth Avenues AIF led the latest fundraising round. Several existing investors as well as new angel investors participated in the new round, including Aman Gupta of BoAt, Nikhil Kamath and Nitin Kamath of Zerodha, and Haresh Chawla of True North.

According to Tracxn, the new funding, which is an extension of the USD 52 million Series F round announced last year, brings Licious' total funding to USD 488 million.

3One4 Capital, Temasek, and IIFL are among the investors in Licious, which operates an eponymous e-commerce platform that sells seafood and meat in several Indian cities. The start-up has established a supply chain system around many Indian cities in order to procure seafood and meat and deliver it fresh within hours of receiving an order.

In a joint statement, Licious Co-Founders Abhay Hanjura and Vivek Gupta stated that the valuation is a direct result of the value that the firm has created for stakeholders-investments towards establishing the category that has carried rich dividends and have catapulted growth for the company and its stakeholders.

The growing interest of investors from India and abroad is further proof that quality, customer obsession, and service standards are the pillars of the best businesses.

The firm did not provide any metrics, but it has benefited from the rise in popularity of D2C brands as a result of the pandemic. The company announced in October that its revenue had increased by more than 500% year on year.

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https://techcrunch.com/2022/03/14/indias-licious-raises-150-million-for-its-fresh-animal-protein-e-commerce-platform/