Licious raises $25 mn from Bertelsmann, Vertex, others

Fresh meat and seafood brand Licious Wednesday announced that it has raised USD 25 million in a Series C funding round, led by Bertelsmann India Investments, Vertex Ventures Southeast Asia and India along with UCLA.

Existing investors like Mayfield India, 3one4 Capital, Sistema Asia Fund and InnoVen Capital also participated in the funding round, a company release said.

The funds will be used to expand to new cities, fostering the value-added product category, and strengthening the supply chain.

"We are extremely bullish about our plans going ahead. These funds will greatly aid us in deepening and widening our market presence and enable us to offer new products and services to our customers," Abhay Hanjura and Vivek Gupta, co-founders, Licious, were quoted as saying in the release.

The announcement comes on the heels of Licious announcing its plans to enter the Mumbai and Pune market by end of 2018, adding to its market presence across Delhi-NCR, Bengaluru and Hyderabad.

The firm, founded in 2015, had raised USD 10 million in Series B funding round in March last year. Before that, it had also raised seed funding, followed by Series A funding of over USD 3 million.