Mumbai: direct-to-consumer fresh meat and seafood brands lysius A senior company official told ET that it has raised $52 million for a Series G round led by IIFL’s Late Stage Tech Fund and Avendus. The round takes the company to a post-money valuation of $1.05 billion, making it the latest entrant to the prestigious. unicorn club The number of companies with a valuation of over a billion dollars.

“We will use these funds to grow our offline business, our ready-to-eat product portfolio, and our geographic expansion.” Vivek Gupta, cofounder, Licious told ET.

In July this year, the company
raised $192 million As part of its Series F round led by Singapore government investment company Temasek and Multiples Private Equity, it is valued at $650 million. It also counts funds such as Brunei Investment Agency, 3one4 Capital, Bertelsmann India Investments, Vertex Growth Fund, and Vertex Ventures Southeast Asia and India as its investors.

“We will see an opportunity to grow inorganically by acquiring smaller businesses in ancillary and commercial areas,” Gupta said.

According to Gupta, the current revenue run rate of the company is Rs 1,000 crore. “With an increase of nearly 60% since our last fundraising, we expect to close the financial year at Rs 1,500 crore. According to the company, the D2C market in India is at an inflection point and is expected to attain a size of over 100 billion by 2025. The pandemic has played a major role in accelerating the growth of the sector.

“The fresh meat and seafood sector is still largely underfunded and unorganized with a huge $40 billion opportunity. We will continue to build the category through investments in technology for supply chain excellence, product innovation, talent and vendor partner upgrades.” Abhay Hanjura, cofounder, Lycius.

“Lysius has disrupted the meat and seafood category, which is largely unorganized and underserved. Lycius’ focus on product quality, freshness and innovation has created a strong brand that makes them undisputed category leaders. Chetan Naik, IIFL AMC said, “Today, Licious is one of the fastest growing D2C brands and one of the few consumer businesses in India with very strong revenue retention metrics.

Established in 2015 by Gupta and Hanjura, Licence 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 over 2 million customers till date. According to the company, it places over 1 million orders every month and consumes over 90% of the repeats across markets.

The D2C market in India is at an inflection point and is expected to attain a size of $100 billion+ by 2025. The company said that the pandemic has played a major role in accelerating the growth of the sector.