Bangalore-based meat and seafood delivery startup Licious is looking ahead to expand its services across India. It has an ambitious goal of opening 500 stores nationwide in the period of next five years and with an additional investment of $100 million. The strategy includes attracting new customers through online as well as offline channels. Simultaneously, the startup aims to enhance profitability and pave the path for an initial public offering (IPO) by 2026.

As of now, the company has made significant move in reducing wastage through its farm-to-fork model and this has cut down wastage from 6% to 4%. It is further aiming to bring this down to 1.5% with the help of advanced supply chain efficiency and last-mile cluster technology.

Licious is on an upward journey with respect to finance. It has plans to achieve a revenue run rate of Rs 1,200 crore by March 2025. This means the monthly revenue target will be Rs 100 crore.

Licious was founded by Abhay Hanjura and Vivek Gupta in 2015. Since then it has emerged as a disruptive force in India’s $40 billion meat industry. The company is backed by investors like Temasek.

The success secret of Licious is its innovative approach and it is evident by its substantial customer base of 1.2 million monthly users. About 80% of the transactions are through its own app. It also competes directly with Amazon-backed FreshToHome. It aims to expand its reach from four million households to 30 million households.

Licious has also introduced a successful subscription program called ‘Infiniti’ and has attracted 1.5 lakh active subscribers. The company also aims to grow its subscriber base to 250,000 by the end of the fiscal year.