Verified employee & interview reviews

Licious Reviews

Bengaluru, Karnataka

4.0/ 5

1 review

Licious, legally registered as Delightful Gourmet Private Limited, is a prominent Indian direct-to-consumer (D2C) meat and seafood brand. Founded in July 2015 by Abhay Hanjura and Vivek Gupta, the company is headquartered in Bengaluru, Karnataka. Licious was established to address a major gap in the Indian food market: the lack of hygienic, fresh, and high-quality meat and seafood products. By standardizing processes in a traditionally unorganized wet-market sector, Licious emerged as a pioneering market leader, officially becoming India's first D2C unicorn in October 2021. The company operates on a strict farm-to-fork business model, managing its entire back-end supply chain, processing infrastructure, and cold-chain logistics without outsourcing core operations. To guarantee freshness and product safety, Licious maintains a zero-inventory model where meat and seafood are continuously kept at an optimal temperature between 0°C and 4°C. The brand enforces a comprehensive 150-point quality check protocol encompassing sourcing, microbiological testing, and organoleptic assessments. Approximately 50% of its produce is sourced directly from company-owned farms, while the remaining supply is procured from certified partner farms trained to maintain biosecure environments free from antibiotics and artificial growth hormones. Licious offers a diverse product portfolio that includes fresh chicken, mutton, fish, seafood, and eggs, alongside value-added categories like ready-to-cook marinated meats, kebabs, spreads, and specialty spice blends. In July 2022, the company expanded into alternative proteins by launching UnCrave, its plant-based meat line. Its products are packaged using vacuum-sealed technology to preserve natural juices and extend shelf life without chemical preservatives. Initially starting as an app- and web-driven e-commerce platform delivering orders within 90 to 120 minutes, Licious transitioned into an omni-channel retail strategy in early 2024, opening physical experience centers and offline stores to capture broader market demand. The brand utilizes advanced statistical modeling and predictive demand algorithms to streamline logistics, effectively reducing operational wastage from an industry average of 40% down to 3%. Licious employs around 1,500 to 1,900 people and manages several processing centers located across key metropolitan hubs including Bengaluru, Mumbai, and Gurugram, alongside over 90 localized delivery hubs. The company serves millions of unique customers across more than 20 Indian cities, handling over one million orders monthly with an average basket size of INR 700. Financially, Licious has raised approximately $488 million to $491 million in funding through multiple venture capital rounds, backed by notable investors such as Amansa Capital, Kotak PE, Axis Growth, Vertex Ventures, and the Brunei Investment Agency. For the fiscal year 2024, the company reported a total revenue of INR 748.1 crore while narrowing its EBITDA and operational losses through extensive restructuring.