Bangalore-based food tech Licious' FY22 Loss Leaps Over 2X To INR 856 Cr, Operating Revenue Up 1.6X

As advertising expenditures and other costs skyrocketed, Bengaluru-based D2C food tech unicorn 'Licious' consolidated net loss more than doubled to INR 855.7 Cr in the fiscal year 2021–2022 (FY22).

In FY21, Licious recorded a net loss of INR 369.8 Cr, an increase of approximately 2X from the loss of INR 146 Cr in FY20.

Although operational revenue increased by 1.6X between FY20 and FY21 to reach INR 682.6 Cr in FY22 from INR 415.5 Cr, the growth was slower than that between FY20 and FY21. Licious recorded an operating income of INR 131.8 Cr for FY20.

Abhay Hanjura and Vivek Gupta founded the meat and seafood company Licious in Bengaluru in 2015.

Three processing facilities, located in Bengaluru, Mumbai, and Gurugram, are used by Licious. It uses a farm-to-fork business model and controls the whole cold and back-end supply chain.

Mohandas Pai, Mayfield Capital, Vertex Growth Fund, UCLA, Sistema Asia Fund, and InnoVen Capital are a few of the investors who have raised investments in Licious.

In FY22, Licious's total revenue—which includes interest on current and fixed deposits as well as other non-operating income—was INR 706.1 Cr.

Licious' operational income is derived from the sale of goods and delivery charges.

After raising $52 million in its Series G investment round, which was headed by IIFL AMC's Late Stage Tech Fund and a number of other private equity investors, the firm became a unicorn in FY22, a first in the D2C food tech sector.

If more money came in, Licious could spend more on everything from employee benefits to advertising. From INR 641.7 Cr in the prior fiscal year to INR 1,191.5 Cr in FY22, a 1.8X increase in total expenses was recorded.