Meat and seafood delivery firm Licious has raised $25 million in Series C growth round led by Bertelsmann India Investments, Vertex Ventures Southeast Asia and India along with UCLA. Existing investors Mayfield India, 3one4 Capital, Sistema Asia Fund and InnoVen Capital also took part in the funding round.

Prior to the recent funding, the company had raised $10 million in Series B funding round in March 2017.

Licious said it would use the funds for expansion into new cities, growing its value-added product category as well strengthening the supply chain.

Licious was founded in 2015 by Abhay Hanjura and Vivek Gupta. The company operates on a farm-to-fork business model wherein it owns the entire back-end supply chain. Licious is present in the Delhi-NCR, Bengaluru and Hyderabad and is set to enter Mumbai and Pune by the end of 2018. Currently, the firm boasts of a 300% growth year-on-year.

Founders of the company told FE on a conference call that the industry is not constrained by demand, but by the quality of supply. “We believe that we need to build the supply chain capabilities, and then unlimited market opens up for us. That has contributed to 300% growth year-on-year. The most interesting fact about this growth is that 90% of it comes from repeat customers,” said Hanjura.

Hanjura and Gupta said the firm receives close to 6,000 orders per day and manages to process 12,000 kg of meat on a daily basis. “We are a profitable business in Bengaluru and even in Hyderabad. The company does not burn that much of money from that perspective. The Delhi-NCR business is just 4-5-month old. In another 60 days, we will be in Mumbai. We will also look at Chennai and other cities later on,” they said.

Pankaj Makkar, MD at Bertelsmann India Investments, said Licious, with its robust supply chain and seamless farm-to-fork model, addresses some of the biggest challenges faced by the consumer when it comes to their purchase experience and the quality of product. “We have strong conviction in the founding team’s vision and strategy to build Licious as the most trusted brand for fresh food and gourmet food products in India.”