Success Stories
First Indian Woman to Receive Michelin Star Named Best Female Chef in Asia
A former journalist turned chef and alum of top kitchens including Noma and Gaggan, has been named the best female chef in Asia for her progressive Indian-Thai restaurant Gaa in Bangkok.
The title bestowed by the Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants group comes just months after chef Garima Arora became the first Indian woman to earn a Michelin star last winter.
The concept of Gaa is not unlike Gaggan, an avant-garde restaurant in Bangkok which also serves progressive Indian cuisine with local Thai ingredients and influences. Gaggan is helmed by Indian chef Gaggan Anand and has topped Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants for the last four years in a row.
At Gaa, diners choose between a 10 or 14-course tasting menu that changes quarterly and relies on classic Indian cooking techniques, notably, the extraction of umami from vegetables, Arora explains in a video interview.
That’s the principle behind her signature dish, flame-grilled jackfruit topped with caramelized onions, served with an assortment of pickles and roti. The result? A vegetarian dish where the lack of meat goes unnoticed.
“What ignites my passion as a chef is eating something new for the very first time,” she said.
“The joy one feels when they take a spoonful of something they never tasted before. That’s the feeling I like to have and that’s the feeling I want my guest to have as well.”
Along with being adept in the kitchen, Arora is skilled with words, expressing her culinary ethos with ease and clarity, perhaps owing to her background as a former journalist.
Like a journalist, she also asks thoughtful questions in her cooking (Why is that Indian cuisine developed this way and why do we put things together the way we do?) in order to come up with new and different dishes.
For Arora, there was no toiling in small ma and pa restaurants or greasy spoons.
After graduating from Le Cordon Bleu in Paris in 2010, Arora went straight to the top, working at Noma in Copenhagen where she learned to approach cooking as a “cerebral exercise” before moving on to Gaggan.
She opened Gaa, a three-story restaurant across the street from Gaggan in 2017. While discussing her decision to open in Bangkok, she described the city as the perfect backdrop for the shared connection between Indian and Thai cultures, people, language, food and mythology.
“It’s so deeply connected.”
She also welcomes the notion of bringing progressive Indian food to the international stage: “Indian food can be the future of modern cuisine.”
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Source: Entrepreneur.com
Love eating non-veg right? Whenever it is Tuesday or Saturday your hearts come out crying for nonveg. To see them once becomes a great desire for many. At times non-veg items may not be present at your homes. But that’s no more an issue in today’s world.
Looking for clean and fresh fish? Love chicken or red meat? Sometimes these things may not be available in the market. But Licious was always, is and will be there to provide the best products to its consumers. Read the Licious success story below!
Licious – Company Highlights
| Start-up Name | Licious |
|---|---|
| Headquarters | Bangalore |
| Industry | E-commerce and Food & Beverage |
| Founders | Vivek Gupta and Abhay Hanjura |
| Founded | September 2015 |
| Total Funding | $286.5 million (as per July 2021) |
| Revenue | Over 133 million (as per July 2021) |
| Website | licious.com |
Licious – About
Licious – Startup Story
Licious – Founders And Team
Licious – Business Model
Licious – Revenue Model
Licious – Funding And Investors
Licious – Growth
Licious – Competitors
Licious – Future Plans
Licious – FAQ’s
Licious – About
Licious is a Bengaluru-based meat and seafood brand. The company serves the best, fresh and clean fish, chicken, meat, and eggs online. Licious works on a farm to fork model owning the entire back-end supply chain and the cold chain. A separate recipe section is also present in their App. It helps the customers to cook delicious dishes. And also teaches the exotic chef style.
It operates across Bangalore, Hyderabad, Delhi-NCR, Chandigarh, Mumbai, Pune, Chennai, Coimbatore, Pondicherry, Jaipur, Kochi, Vizag, Kolkata, and Vijayawada.
Licious – Startup Story
Abhay Hanjura approached Vivek Gupta (then working with Helion ventures) to explore the space of fresh meat & seafood delivery in India. Although 73% of Indian eats meat and seafood, the industry is highly unorganized. An average Indian household consumes 2000-3000 different branded products, meat being the only exception (well, almost). More than 95% of the fresh meat & seafood industry in India is unorganized & usually conjures up an image of an unhygienic local market, filth, stench & an unpleasant buying experience. The duo wanted to change the way Indian experiences meat.
Hence, Licious was created with the thought that India deserves better meat.
Abhay & Vivek were having lunch while discussing the business idea. The chicken they were having was of really bad quality. Vivek remarked that, if we have to build Licious we will have to put life in this dead chicken! That was the moment they realized what they wanted to achieve through Licious- to deliver an unparalleled meaty experience to Indians, introduce global quality standards & benchmarks, set up a hitherto non-existing infrastructure & build processes that India was yet to see.
Licious chose a simple mission statement- we won’t sell what we won’t eat ourselves! It is this simple credo has been the driving force at the company and continues to be so, 5 years later.
Licious – Founders And Team
Vivek Gupta and Abhay Hanjura are the founders of Licious.
- Vivek Gupta is the Co-founder of Licious. He started his career as a Corporate Finance Manager of Tavant Technologies. He was also the Finance Controller of Helion Ventures and the Non-Executive Director at MobiCom Commune Pvt. Ltd. He completed his BCom from Punjab University and went on to become a Chartered Accountant (CA).
- Abhay Hanjura is also the Co-founder of Licious. He was the campus ambassador of Infosys. He started his career as a Deputy Manager at India Insure Risk Management Services. He was also the Head of Business Intelligence and Associate Director of Futurisk Insurance Broking Pvt Ltd.
Licious – Business Model
Licious has got a farm to fork business model. The company handles the entire supply chain. Starting from procurement, processing, storage to reach the consumer, in the end, is the responsibility of the company. With over 3500 employees the company claims to deliver the order within 90-120 mins. And processes more than a million orders a month. Transactions are very safe and secured here. The business model here is built to maintain the freshness and the quality of every product. They have both a web platform as well as a mobile app. Consumer loyalty is the main focus of the brand.
Licious – Revenue Model
Licious has got a customer base of more than 1 Million unique customers till date. The average basket size is of INR 700. In the first year, the company collected revenue of INR 1.47 crores. In FY 2019-20, the revenue collected was INR 180 Crores.
Licious – Funding And Investors
Licious has raised a total amount of USD 286.5 million in funding that includes the recent Series F round of funding in June.
Licious’ Funding and investors details are as follows –
| Date | Transaction Name | Money Raised | Lead Investors |
|---|---|---|---|
| June 11, 2021 | Series F round | $192 million | Multiples Alternate Asset Management, Brunei Investment Agency, Vertex Ventures |
| December 16, 2019 | Series E | $30 million | Vertex Growth Fund, 3one4 Capital, Bertelsmann India Investments, Nichirei Corp, Vertex Ventures Southeast Asia and India, Sistema Asia Fund |
| December 10, 2018 | Series D | $25 million | Nichirin, 3one4 Capital, Bertelsmann India Investment, Vertex Ventures Southeast Asia and India, UCLA, Sistema Asia Fund |
| September 26, 2018 | Series C | $25 million | Bertelsmann India Investments and Vertex Ventures Southeast Asia & India (part of the Vertex Holdings network of funds). The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), also invested in the company along with existing investors Mayfield India, 3one4 Capital, Sistema Asia Fund, InnoVen Capital |
| March 29, 2017 | Series B | $10 million | 3one4 Capital and Mayfield Fund Sistema Asia Fund, Neoplux Technology fund |
| April 21, 2016 | Series A | $3.5 million | Mayfield Fund, 3one4 Capital |
| September 24, 2015 | Seed Round | $1 million | T.V. Mohandas Pai, Manipal Global Education Services, entrepreneur Kanwaljit Singh |
Investors –
TV Mohandas Pai, Vertex Growth Fund, Nichirei Corp, 3one4 Capital, Bertelsmann India Investments, UCLA, Sistema Asia Fund, Mayfield Capital, Sistema Asia Fund, Korea-based Neoplux Technology fund and Innoven Capital are some of the investors in the company. This fresh Series F round of investment further adds Multiples Alternate Asset Management and Brunei Investment Agency.
Licious – Growth
The business saw a 500% growth in the past year, and continues to hold on to the momentum. While all product categories saw growth, the ready-to-cook and ready-to-eat categories contributed significantly to the revenue. Products like the kebab range & chicken spreads emerged as favourites, while new launches like tandoori products are seeing quick traction too.
Currently, Licious claims to have delivered two million orders to unique customers till date. The average basket size per consumer grew by 30% too.
The company has enjoyed a repeat purchase rate of 90% and continues to enjoy the same.
People usually say that most Indians are vegetarians. But this is not true. More than 73% of the population in India eats meat. This is the biggest fact behind Licious’ growth. Surveys say that the fresh meat and seafood market is very unorganized. This is why online platforms have emerged to help people all around. Licious promised its consumers hygiene and quality.
Licious – Competitors
Top competitors of Licious are FreshToHome, ZappFresh, and TenderCuts.
Licious – Future Plans
Licious has significantly increased its footprints over the 2020 & 2021.
Licious used to operate in 14 markets across India, namely Bangalore, Hyderabad, NCR, Chandigarh, Mumbai, Pune, Chennai, Jaipur, Coimbatore, Kochi, Puducherry, Vizag, Vijayawada and Kolkata, which has now expanded to include 16 cities.
Over the next year Licious will continue to expand to 10+ Indian cities. A global expansion is also on cards in near future.
Have you tried Licious yet? If yes, then share your experience and feedback on Licious. Feel free to reach us and share your feedback. We would love to hear from you. Do comment us in the comments section below. Happy Reading.
Licious – FAQ’s
What is Licious?
Licious is a meat and seafood company. It serves the best quality meat online.
Who is the founder of Licious?
Vivek Gupta and Abhay Hanjura are the founders of the company Licious.
How much is Licious’ Revenue?
In the first year, the company collected revenue of INR 1.47 crores. In FY 2019-20, the revenue collected was INR 180 Crores.
Is Licious an Indian company?
Yes. Licious is headquartered in Bangalore, Karnataka, India.
How many customers does Licious have?
Licious has got a customer base of more than 1 Million unique customers till date. The average basket size is of INR 700.
Who are the competitors of Licious?
Top competitors of Licious are FreshToHome, ZappFresh, and TenderCuts.
What is the business model of Licious?
Licious has got a farm to fork business model. The company handles the entire supply chain. Starting from procurement, processing, storage to reach the consumer, in the end, is the responsibility of the company.
Source: Startup Talky
Inspiration can come to us from anywhere. However, few things motivate us like real-life stories in which people overcome difficulties to emerge as winners. That’s probably why this story of a woman, who took up a job when her husband fell ill, has struck a chord with netizens.
According to a post shared on Humans of Bombay on April 30, the woman, not named, took up a job at a jewellery store to make ends meet. It was there that her potential as a saleswoman was discovered. She decided to nurture her newfound skill and eventually started her own business. This is her story:
“My husband suffered a stroke and the doctor asked us to move to a village for his health — so we left our family here and moved to Ajmer. My husband could no longer earn, so I started working at a jewelry store to make ends meet. At first I was just packing orders, but slowly I realised that I was a good saleswoman as well. My boss saw it too and he promoted me! I saved all the money I made through commission and now I’ve started my own saree business — I’m actually here to source material! You know earlier I couldn’t even imagine ever working, forget running my own business…but now I’m earning for the entire family! After a hard day’s work when I come back home and see the pride in the eyes of my family, it makes it all worth it.”
The woman’s inspiring story has left many moved. Several people have showered comments on the post.
What do you think about this story?
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