Licious Case Study 2022 | What mistakes does Licious make in the starting | Steps we taken by Licious | Strategies adopted by Licious | Funding rounds of Licious
How a company that was at the verge of getting close made its way back to the market and became the top meat selling company of India. This blog is on Licious, one of the top meat selling companies in India.
About Licious
This company is India’s first D2C unicorn, based in Bengaluru, Karnataka, India, as well as owning a back-end supply chain and cold chain. Licious operates in many states such as Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Delhi, Gurugram, Faridabad, Noida, Mumbai, Pune, Chennai, Chandigarh, Jaipur, Coimbatore, Kochi, Visakhapatnam, Vijayawada, Pondicherry, and Kolkata.
Type | Subsidiary |
Founded | 2015 |
Founders | Abhay Hanjura and Vivek Gupta |
Area Served | India |
Industry | Fresh Animal Protein Brand |
Headquarters | Bengaluru, India |
Products | Meat, seafood, ready-to-cook and ready-to-eat meals |
Number of employees | 3500+ |
Parent | Delightful Gourmet Pvt. Ltd. |
The company began selling meat offline in 2019 through two Experience Centers – one at Gurugram’s Galleria Market and the other at Bengaluru’s Ascendas Park Square Mall.
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What mistakes does Licious make in the starting?
In 2015 Abhay Hanjura used to meet his friend Vivek Gupta regularly for meals. They both were meat lovers and they thought of selling meat online. In the beginning, they used to deliver meat from their scooter. But soon they realized that this idea is not working. Customers were not coming and cash was burning daily. They both decided to stop the business but Abhay told Vivek, ‘Let’s try one more time, what if something great happens?’
When they started the business they did a big mistake which cost them a fortune. The major mistakes they made are:-
1. Shadowed business mode:- They both started a business but had no structured business model. Both knew that they wanted to deliver quality meat but the problem was how to deliver it?
No processes were designed for these things and when there is no quality process designed then there are high chances that it will shut down.
2. Delay in delivery:- Not only this, they promised two hours delivery services in the beginning but failed to deliver the meat within the mentioned time. And as a result, they delivered all their orders late. And due to this reason during the initial four months, customers were coming but at the same speed going. And they were on the verge of shutting down.

Steps we taken by Licious :-
Abhay Gupta and co-founder Abhay Hanjura established Licious in 2015, seeing immense potential in animal protein, an area that was hitherto untouched in the Indian market. However, they also knew that there were monumental challenges to be overcome — ranging from a lack of infrastructure to a lack of well-trained workers.
“Based on their initial research, it turned out that no one knows what customers want, and in many cases, customers are not aware of the high-quality animal protein products the industry can procure and produce.
In looking back, they feel that their achievement hasn’t been the result of one moment or one decision, but more of their consistent efforts, as “the value that we have created for our stakeholder ecosystem can be directly reflected in the valuation of the company,” said Gupta.
It was the bottom-up approach and a desire to challenge the status quo that led to Licious’ growth and innovation over the last six years, Gupta said. “We weren’t chasing the billion-dollar valuation goal.”
They saw this as a great opportunity to disrupt and organize this underserved and underdeveloped market for animal proteins that was estimated to be worth approximately $65 billion by 2022. Founders Vivek Gupta and Abhay Hanjura have established themselves as experts in this field.
A growing middle class in India is pushing the premium food and beverage sector to grow. Research indicates that meat demand will grow by 80% in 2022, primarily driven by convenience. This will only result in a rise in the consumption of processed meats, poultry, and seafood products in an industry that has long been plagued by low quality and hygiene standards and highly unorganized sourcing and distribution.
Strategies adopted by Licious:-
1. Ads strategy:-
Using Universal Ads, Licious accurately attributes its ad conversions across all marketing channels and devices, thereby giving better insight into campaigns’ return on advertising investment (ROAI).
Every mobile marketer’s challenge is to identify the source of conversions, so branch links help Licious attribute conversions to the correct platform, in the above example, users click on the deep link on Facebook, and are directed to the Google Play Store to download the app, following which they are taken to the same page in-app that they were trying to reach before the install.
In addition, Branch’s Universal Ads enable Licious to scale its marketing campaigns across 50+ partners, such as Facebook, Apple Search Ads, and the Google Marketing Platform, as well as accurately attribute all activities to each partner.
2. Supply chain management strategy:-
Due to the nature of the fresh meat segment, a very localised supply chain is required to maintain the quality. Licious owns and operates the entire back-end supply chain, supporting it with state-of-the-art processing and cold chain control to ensure that the quality of products reaches the end-user.
Licious built its supply chain, working with livestock farmers to ensure the animals are cared for, fed, and bred in ways that ensure the end consumer gets the best product. While other startups are building their business models on e-commerce, Licious owns the supply chain and processing centres.
3. Product First strategy:-
A company that offers fresh meat, cold cuts and marinated items; owns a state-of-the-art microbiological lab that has the capability of testing samples for bacteria to ensure the products are free from preservatives and antibiotics; has its processing facility and patented packaging system that uses vacuum-sealed containers to prevent contamination; owns its processing unit; has a state-of-the-art microbiological lab, and has its processing facility.

Funding rounds
Year | Investor | Funds |
2015 | T.V Mohandas Pai, Manipal Global Education Services and entrepreneur Kanwaljit Singh. | 6.9 crore |
2016 | Mayfield Capital and 3one4 Capital | ₹ 21 crore |
2017 | Mayfield India, 3one4 Capital, Sistema Asia Fund and Neoplux Technology fund. | ₹ 69 crore |
2018 | The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), Mayfield India, 3one4 Capital, Sistema Asia Fund and InnoVen Capital. | ₹174 crore |
2019 | Singapore,Vertex Growth Fund;3one4 Capital, Bertelsmann India Investments, Nichirei Corp, Vertex Ventures Southeast Asia and India, and Sistema Asia Fund. | $30 million |
2021 | IIFL AMC’s Late Stage Tech Fund | $52 mn |

Who is the founder of Licious?
The founders of Licious are Abhay Hanjura and Vivek Gupta.
Is Licious meat costlier than other local market meat sellers?
Yes, Licious meat is costlier than other meat sellers.
What is the current valuation of Licious?
The current valuation of Licious is $150 million in a Series F2 funding round.
What is the age of Licious founder?
Vivek Gupta is 40 years also and
Abhay Hanjura is also 40 years old.
Is Licious available outside India?
No, Licious is not available outside India.
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