Licious: A startup food for thought with a meaty serving

Startup Showcase

Want to buy some good chicken for curry at home? Visit the local butcher to get it. But is one getting as much quantity or quality for what’s being paid?

That’s something that a lot of Indian consumers are unaware of, which becomes all the more important with 70% of the country’s population being non-vegetarian. Trying to allay consumers’ doubts, Licious aims to be the dream of every meat-lover.
“There’s a huge opportunity in this space. Meat is a very large market in India, where close to Rs 1,80,000 crore of raw meat gets sold. But 95% of the market is completely unorganised,” Licious co-founder Vivek Gupta tells DH.

Hence, Licious was born in August 2015, with a vision to bring hygienic, tender, and safe meat to consumers.

“We have a large state-of-the-art processing plant in Bengaluru, which can process 10 tonnes of meat per day. We process different products of chicken, lamb, and seafood,” co-founder Abhay Hanjura says. Licious follows a scientific process, working with over 30 suppliers. It uses backward integration to source meat from suppliers in Karnataka, where quality – from feed to breed – is controlled. The seafood (wild and farm fish) is sourced from India’s East and West coasts, apart from a few countries abroad for more exotic fare, such as Atlantic salmon and sea bass.

Meanwhile, at the plant, the company follows a strict checklist of hygiene, safety, and a waste disposal mechanism, besides maintaining a strict cold-chain environment to ensure quality and cleanliness.

“There’s a whole amount of expertise and quality checks that go into our processes. We are building this brand for consumers, and want to provide the best. For instance, even when chicken gets delivered at home, it is in a climate-controlled way,” Hanjura says.

Today, Licious — which retails chicken, mutton, lamb, and seafood (including prawns, crabs, and lobsters) — has gone beyond raw meat offerings, with differentiated pre-marinated meats, meat-based pickles, sandwich spreads, exotic meats, free range meat, a delicatessen portfolio, besides recently launching 10-minute ready-to-eat meals. And all this is available to customers on order through the Licious website and app.

“Customers can place an order, which are of two types – one for immediate delivery, and the other, scheduled for a later date and time. If an order is placed for immediate delivery, it can be delivered at home within 120 minutes. We have 10 delivery centres across Bengaluru. In the next few months, we plan to have around 14 delivery centres,” Gupta says, adding that Licious sees over 30,000 orders a month, which is growing 25-30%.