Licious
Licious  is an e-commerce service, that sells seafood and meat, in addition to ready-to-cook and ready-to-eat products. It is operated by Delightful Gourmet Private Limited and headquartered in Bangalore, and was launched in 2015 by Abhay Hanjura and Vivek Gupta. Licious is India's first direct-to-consumer (D2C) unicorn.

History
Vivek Gupta and his friend, Abhay Hanjura started Licious in 2015. It is operated by Delightful Gourmet Pvt. Ltd. It operates out of three processing centres in Bengaluru, Mumbai, and Gurugram and is spread in 14 Indian cities. In 2021, Licious became India's 29th unicorn. In October 2022, Licious launched direct-to-consumer, plant-based meat brand, UnCrave. In March 2023, the company launched a new ad campaign called the ‘All You Can Eat Meat Buffet.’ featuring The Great Khali.

Funding
In September of its founding year 2015, Licious received $1 million in seed investment from former Infosys Board member and CFO T. V. Mohandas Pai. In 2016, Licious received $3 million investment from Mayfield Capital and 3one4 Capital. Next year Licious raised $10 million investment from existing and new ones including Mayfield India, 3one4 Capital, Sistema Asia Fund and Neoplux Technology Fund.

In 2018, Licious raised $25 million investment from Bertelsmann India Investments and Vertex Ventures Southeast Asia & India, UCLA, also invested in the company, along with Mayfield India, 3one4 Capital, Sistema Asla Fund and InnoVen Capital. In the same year they received $25 million funding from Japan's Nichirei Group. Existing Investors 3one4 Capital, Bertelsmann India Investment, Vertex Ventures Southeast Asia and India, UCLA and Sistema Asia Fund.

In 2019 Licious raised $30 million funding from Singapore based Vertex Growth Fund. Existing investors including 3one4 Capital, Bertelsmann India Investments, Nichirei Corp, Vertex Ventures Southeast Asia, and Sistema Asla Fund.

In 2021, Licious received $192 million from Teamsek and multiple private equity. In the same year they received $52 million funding from IIFL AMC, Avendus Future Leaders Fund and became India's first direct-to-customer Unicorn.

Operations
As of March 2023, Licious operates across 20+ cities in India, serving over 1.2 million orders every month. With processing centers located in Bengaluru, Mumbai and Gurugram, the brand serves with over 90% repeat consumption across markets. Over 2021-22, the brand witnessed a 300% revenue growth.

Awards
 Pitch Top 50 Brands By Exchange4Media

See also
 List of unicorn startup companies

References

External links

Companies based in Bangalore
Indian companies established in 2015
Online grocers
Online retailers of India