Former Infosys Director TV Mohandas Pai has invested an undisclosed amount in Licious, a food tech start-up that delivers fresh meat to the homes of consumers.
The venture enables customers to place the order through an app, web and telephone call. Mr. Pai made the investment along with Kanwaljit Singh, founder of Fireside Ventures and former Senior Managing Director of venture capital firm Helion.
The six-month-old firm will use the funds to scale up its operations and hire talent. The company said that it has brought together all stages of fresh meat procurement, processing and delivery under one roof with high standards of quality.
“In the consumer space, the team that truly understands how to continuously delight their customers with consistent high quality experiences are the ones that make a real impact,” said T.V. Mohandas Pai, Chairman of Manipal Global Education Services. “In Licious, I see a team that has worked tremendously diligently to build an end-to-end experience that customers cannot forget.”
Licious was founded by Abhay Hanjura, a Bangalore University science graduate along with his friend Vivek Gupta, a chartered accountant, after having a poor meat buying experience. After successfully testing its technology and business model, Licious launched its service this month. It has already received over 1,000 orders.
“We sincerely hope to forever change the consumer landscape in the fresh meat space as we go about redefining the standards of quality across the value chain,” said 28-year-old Abhay Hanjura. Before launching the firm, Mr. Hanjura ran operations at corporate risk advisory firm Futurisk.
Licious said that it owns and operates a fully automated meat processing unit at Hennur in Bengaluru with delivery hubs in localities such as Marathahalli and Kammanahalli.
The company plans to open a total of about 10 hubs in phases to cover the rest of the city.
Licious said that the meat products were sourced after stringent internal quality checks. It uses patented, vacuum sealed and temperature controlled containers to deliver items such as chicken, lamb and sea food. It promises to deliver meat products in about 90 minutes.
“Licious is a very interesting business proposition because it addresses a very large and unorganised market,” said Kanwaljit Singh of Fireside Ventures that invests in early-stage consumer-focused companies.
Mr. Pai has emerged as one of the most prolific angel investors. He has invested in about a dozen young tech companies including wearable fitness start-up GetActive, home services firm Zimmber and exam preparation venture OnlineTyari.com. He also runs a private equity fund Aarin Capital along with Manipal group scion Ranjan Pai that invests in life sciences start-ups.
