Bangalore Based Consumer Food Brand Licious Secures $3M in Series A Funding

Bangalore-based consumer food brand Licious was started 9 months back by Abhay Hanjura and Vivek Gupta, with a dream to build India's largest meat brand that delivers fresh meat to consumers. Today they announced that they have concluded a Series A round of funding done by Mayfield India II Management Ltd. Mayfield India II Management Ltd. is one of the most respected funds globally, with key investments in companies like Simplilearn, Amagi, etc. 

Licious is on track to be the category thought-leader with a clear consumer brand focus. The company has grown more than 10X from the last round of angel investment less than 4 months ago from marquee investors such as Kanwaljeet Singh, Mohandas Pai, Kaushal Agarwal and others.

Abhay Hanjura, Co-founder Licious said, “We are extremely excited with the faith shown in Licious by Mayfield India II Management Ltd. The funds will be put to work on product innovations, building world class products that will continue to revolutionise the fresh meat space in the country. We are now operating at optimal levels at Bangalore and follow the ‘zero inventory’ model successfully. It is now time to move to other parts of the country and a major part of the funds will go towards that”. Vivek Gupta, Co-founder Licious added, “The funds will also go into marketing and occupying consumer mind space. Since we are a technology powered company and tech will help us scale, there is going to be investment on building our tech capabilities as well as investing in our resources that has grown to 160+ in Bangalore”.

“The consumer fresh meat value chain in India is highly fragmented. Licious is building a brand which stands for superior quality and hygienic meat products delivered to the consumer’s doorstop" said Nikhil Khattau, managing director, Mayfield India II Management Ltd. 

The startup aims at strengthening their leadership position in the B2C space by offering a clearly discernable taste and quality across their product portfolio by some bespoke and unique processes across the value chain. Meat products are sourced after stringent internal quality checks and processed at the state of the art processing unit owned and operated by Licious. The orders can be placed via channels like phone, website or mobile app. Delivery is through patented, secure, vacuum sealed, temperature controlled containers with the maximum guaranteed delivery time of 90 minutes. 

Licious presently offers 5 broad product categories – fresh chicken, lamb, seafood, marinates and cold-cuts. The company aims at adding innovative product categories in their offerings in the days to come. Licious has received a phenomenal response across Bangalore and is quickly aiming to scale their operations to other markets as well. 

Licious’ key angel investor Mohandas Pai concludes “The team at Licious has proven by example that it is possible to combine deep domain expertise, a focus on unit economics, and an uncompromising consumer experience to build a defensible business around a simple but powerful idea. They have worked backwards from their goals to make each purchase an unforgettable experience and have utilised technology to scale their operational excellence across multiple locations. This is the DNA of a company that will become a market leader, and we are excited to see Licious grow to new levels and lift the standards of quality and consistency in the consumer space”.