Farm-to-fork protein with a brand, a cold chain, and founders who would rather profit than rush an IPO.
- Founded
- 2015
- Legal entity
- Delightful Gourmet Pvt. Ltd.
- Last valuation
- $1.5 billion
- As of 2023 round
- FY24 revenue
- ₹685 crore (down 8%)
- As of FY24
- Nov 2025 run-rate
- ₹104 crore in one month (first ₹100cr month)
- IPO timing
- Founders: 2027–28, after profit
- As of Aug 2025, ET Soonicorns
The beginning
Vivek Gupta (CA) and Abhay Hanjura (biotech/genetics background, then BFSI) were not typical IIT-IIM product founders. They wrote a simple rule: “We won’t sell what we won’t eat ourselves,” and incorporated in 2015 to sell fresh meat with temperature control and a brand.
The category was huge, unbranded, and culturally sensitive. That is why many investors passed — and why a brand, if it worked, could be defensible.
The problem
Buying meat in India usually meant a wet market or a neighbourhood butcher: variable hygiene, no standard cuts, limited seafood cold chain, and almost no national brand. Quality-seeking urban households had money but not a trusted SKU.
The idea
Own the chain: sourcing, processing, cold logistics, branded cuts, and delivery. Charge a premium for cleanliness and convenience. Later: ready-to-cook, ready-to-eat, and offline stores (including the 2024 acquisition of My Chicken and More in Bengaluru).
Early execution
Bengaluru launch, city expansion (Delhi NCR, Hyderabad, Chennai and others), unicorn in 2021, Temasek and others on the cap table. After COVID’s delivery boom, FY24 revenue slipped 8% to ₹685 crore as Dunzo-type channels vanished and modern trade was de-emphasised; losses narrowed 44% to ~₹294 crore.
Business model
How value moves
- Premium priced fresh protein on owned digital channel (~85% of sales cited in 2025 interviews).
- Quick-commerce and marketplaces as extra reach, not the core.
- Growing offline store footprint (target talk of 500 stores over years).
- Ready-to-cook as a higher-convenience, higher-margin adjacency (about 10% of business in 2025 comments, with a 10× ambition).
Growth strategy
Trust marketing, delivery SLA, SKU education (cuts, recipes), and a shift from “app only” to omnichannel after the pandemic bump faded.
Major milestones
2015
Founded; Bengaluru delivery of branded meat.
2016–19
City expansion; cold chain.
2021
Unicorn.
2023
Last disclosed $1.5B round.
2024
Revenue dip; My Chicken and More acquisition.
2025
₹100 crore month; IPO deferred by founders.
Challenges, failures and adaptation
FY24 showed that marketplace dependence (Dunzo) is fragile. Owned channel is slower to build and more valuable.
Unicorn valuations freeze a number that operations may not yet earn. The founders’ public discomfort with the tag is a useful data point for students who think the press release is the business.
GMI analysis
The following is Grow My India’s interpretation of documented information. It is not a statement by the company.
What we can learn
Brand the anxiety, not the commodity.
How to apply it. Write the fear (spoilage, adulteration, fit). Design the ops that remove it. Then name the product.
Owned channel is a moat.
How to apply it. Track % of revenue on a property you control. If a closed API would kill you, you do not have a brand yet.
Valuation is not a KPI.
How to apply it. Put contribution margin and repeat rate on the wall. Leave unicorn news in a folder.
Sources & references
Research updated September 2026. Time-sensitive figures are dated in the story. Publicly unavailable claims are omitted rather than invented.
- Licious founders push IPO to 2027–28 — The Economic Times, 2025
- Licious crosses ₹100 crore monthly revenue — Business Standard, 2025
- A lot can happen over lunch with Licious founders — Financial Express, 2025
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