Fresh meat and seafood startup Licious has raised $30 million in Series-E funding round, led by Singapore-based Vertex Growth Fund, along with, existing investors 3one4 Capital, Bertelsmann India Investments, Vertex Ventures Southeast Asia and India, and Sistema Asia Fund.

With this round of funding, the startup's total funding stands at about $100 million. Licious co-founder Vivek Gupta told CNBC TV 18 that the company will achieve operational profitability in financial year 2020.

"We are at Rs 250 crore annualised run rate and will reach Rs 300 crore annually by March 2020," Gupta said.

"We will become operationally profitable by March," he added. Gupta added that $50 million it raised last year was still lying in the bank.”

Licious will use new funds to boost its omnichannel experience, and add a few more cities as part of its expansion. It currently operates in seven cities and processes 17,000 orders per day.

Licious has already launched two stores in Delhi and Bengaluru. "These stores will help offer the touch-and-feel experience to consumers," said Abhay Hanjura, co-founder of Licious.

The startup said that it will also launch new ready-to-eat and ready-to-cook product lines.

“Licious is building a company and brand that is synonymous with the freshest meat and meat products. We are confident that the team’s capabilities and technologies it has established across its entire supply chain will achieve this and allow Licious to deliver value to consumers in India," Tam Hock Chuan, managing partner of Vertex Growth, said in a statement.

Licious was launched in 2015 by Abhay Hanjura and Vivek Gupta as a foods brand offering prime quality meat products. It follows a farm-to-fork model where the company owns the entire back-end supply chain including processing facilities and cold chain control.

First Published:Dec 16, 2019 3:41 PM IST