Licious bets on pet food with $1 mn investment

Online meat delivery platform Licious has invested $1 million in Bengaluru-based pet-food startup Pawfectly Made in a bid to build a “complete ecosystem” of meat products.

Bengaluru-based Pawfectly Made will continue to function as a separate entity with its own production processes and supply chain, as Licious comes in as a strategic partner leveraging its understanding of the fresh animal protein sector to scale the business. Licious refused to disclose the details about its stake in Pawfectly Made.

The Indian pet food market is growing at a CAGR of 18 per cent and expected to reach $642 million by 2022 end, according to market research and consulting firm, TechSci Research. The domestic pet food sector is largely dependent on pre-packaged processed food and this gap was identified by Pawfectly Made. To cash in on this, it introduced customisable fresh pet-food made with high-quality ingredients allowing more options for pet-parents.

“Licious sees a strong synergy with Pawfectly Made when it comes to offering high quality fresh products and elevated meaty experience to customers”, the company said.

The move comes at a time the fresh pet food segment in India is attracting Indian and international players.

Speaking to DH, Nichelle Kamat, VP Category, Licious, said that the company works to promote freshness and quality meat products and for this, it wants to explore synergies to build a complete meat ecosystem in India. “Keeping that in mind, we invested in Pawfectly Made as it offers only fresh food for pets”.