A de'Licious' bet pays off, meet the newest billion dollar company

The latest entrant to the coveted unicorn club of companies is direct-to-consumer fresh meat and seafood brand Licious. Founded by Vivek Gupta and Abhay Hanjura in 2015, the startup has raised $52 million at $1.05 billion valuation.

Licious is now the 29th unicorn to emerge out of India in 2021 amid an unprecedented funding boom. The Bengaluru based startup however has been generous in sharing the wealth. Earlier this year, Licious allocated ESOPs to over 1,000 employees, including the blue-collared workforce.

Licious currently serves 14 Indian cities such as Bangalore, Hyderabad, NCR, Chandigarh, Mumbai, Pune, Chennai, Jaipur, Coimbatore, Kochi, Puducherry, Vizag, Vijayawada and Kolkata. It has delivered to more than 2 million customers till date. According to the company, it serves over 1 million orders every-month with over 90% repeat consumption across markets.