Latest news with #AbhayHanjura
Hans India
03-06-2025
- Business
- Hans India
Amid Seasonal Fishing Bans, Licious Keeps Seafood Flowing with Robust Coast-to-Coast Supply Chain
Bengaluru: As seasonal fishing bans have come into effect on India's coasts, D2C meat and seafood brand Licious rerouted procurement from multiple active coasts to maintain seafood availability across urban markets amid supply drops and price spikes in multiple states. The 61-day bans in place from April 15 to June 14 on the East Coast and from June 1 to July 31 on the West Coast enable marine ecosystems to regenerate in peak breeding season. This has led to supply visibly reducing with wet markets & traditional vendors. This has led to price rises of 40% to 80% in markets with consumers purchasing for household consumption across Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, and other areas. Licious' supply chain strategy combines daily-demand forecasting, regional rerouting, and one of India's first and most advanced 0-4 degrees centigrade cold chains, enabling continued availability when others scale down. 'Our goal isn't to bypass the system, but to work within it. We choose to source same day catch from small boats and follow all government regulations when it comes to mechanised trawling while meeting customer demand across 20+ cities. During the ban, we leverage our in-house planning and demand forecasting mechanisms for an agile supply chain. In practice, that means moving fish from Kochi to Delhi overnight or rerouting via Tuticorin when East Coast hubs are restricted,' said Abhay Hanjura and Vivek Gupta, Founders - Licious. Licious sources from multiple landing sites across Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Karnataka, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Odisha, and Goa - reducing overfishing and ensuring availability with 150+ cuts of fish and seafood. The company moves its inventory using a combination of truck, rail, and air transport, supported by a national cold chain infrastructure maintained at 0-4°C to keep products fresh and not frozen. Unlike the broader market, which sees product shortages in this period, Licious' graded and quality-assured range assures availability of 94 fish species. This includes favourites like Seer, Pomfret, Anchovies, Mackerals, and Pink Perch among others. Underlying the Licious supply chain is a demand model built on hyperlocal insights too; e.g., Vishu in Kerala drives demand for specific regional catches, while Bengali-dominated neighborhoods see spikes in freshwater fish consumption around Poila Boishakh. India's fish and seafood industry remains largely unorganised, with supply chains vulnerable to seasonality, policy driven restrictions, and logistical complications. With marine fish shelf life being extremely short, forecasting errors lead to waste, and that is what the Licious network is designed to prevent. Our operations during the fishing ban also point to an alternative approach that is both compliance-first and demand-led.
Reuters
18-02-2025
- Business
- Reuters
Temasek-backed Indian startup Licious plans IPO in 2026, eyes $2 billion valuation, says source
Feb 18(Reuters) - Indian online meat and seafood retailer Licious is looking to debut on the bourses in the next 12-18 months and is targeting a valuation of $2 billion, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters on Tuesday. The IPO plan comes at a time when quick commerce is booming in the country, as more shoppers prioritise convenience and speed and are opting for 10-minute deliveries. Licious, backed by Singapore's state-owned investment firm Temasek, also sells its products on quick commerce platforms such as Swiggy's ( opens new tab Instamart and Zomato-owned ( opens new tab Blinkit. Licious founders Abhay Hanjura and Vivek Gupta said in a statement that they are on their journey to being an IPO-ready company. "We are focused on scaling the business by expanding markets, distribution channels, and products. To achieve this, we are aggressively growing our brick-and-mortar presence, targeting 500 stores in the next five years and expanding our ready-to-cook and ready-to-eat range," the statement said. The Bengaluru-based company was valued at $1.5 billion at its last funding round in 2023. It also counts Avendus Capital, and Bertelsmann Investments among its investors. Licious' loss narrowed to 2.98 billion rupees in fiscal 2024 from 5.29 billion rupees loss in 2023, data from Tracxn showed. Revenue declined to 6.87 billion rupees from 7.48 billion rupees in 2023. IPOs in India, which saw a record-run in 2024, have offered investors scant returns this year, with 60% of the companies that have listed on the BSE bourse trading at a discount to their IPO price, stock exchange data showed. Meanwhile, the benchmark Nifty 50 index (.NSEI), opens new tab, has fallen 2.96% so far this year and slid about 12.5% from its all-time closing high in September, amid concerns over a corporate earnings slowdown, sustained foreign selling, and worries about U.S. tariffs and fewer Federal Reserve rate cuts.
