Licious’ FY22 Loss Jumps Over 2X To INR 856 Cr, Operating Revenue Up 1.6X

Bengaluru-based D2C foodtech unicorn Licious’ consolidated net loss more than doubled to  INR 855.7 Cr in the financial year 2021-22 (FY22) as advertising spend and other expenses shot up.

Licious reported a net loss of INR 369.8 Cr in FY21, which had also widened over 2X from INR 146 Cr loss in FY20.

While operating revenue rose 1.6X to INR 682.6 Cr in FY22 from INR 415.5 Cr in FY21, the growth was lower compared to the rise between FY20 and FY21. In FY20, Licious reported operating revenue of INR 131.8 Cr.

As a company that operates on the farm-to-fork business model – from owning back-end supply chain including cold chain control, procurement, processing, and storage for meat, fish, and more such products, to being present till it reaches the customers – Licious’ revenue from operations is generated via sale of goods and delivery charges.

Licious’s total revenue, including interest on fixed deposits and current investments and other non-operating income, stood at INR 706.1 Cr in FY22.

Licious became a unicorn in FY22 – a first in the D2C foodtech space – after raising $52 Mn in its Series G funding round led by IIFL AMC’s Late Stage Tech Fund, and various other private equity investors.

Post that, the startup, founded in 2015, raised another round of $150 Mn in March this year, which was led by Amansa Capital, along with Kotak PE and Axis Growth Avenues AIF–I. 

With more funds flowing in, Licious could increase its expenditure across buckets — from advertisement to employee benefits. Its total expenses jumped 1.8X to INR 1,191.5 Cr in FY22 from INR 641.7 Cr reported in the prior fiscal year.

The startup’s biggest expenditure (over 46% of total expenses) was in the form of the cost of materials consumed, which increased almost 74% to INR 554.4 Cr in FY22 from INR 318.7 Cr in FY21. 

Its second biggest area of expenditure was employee benefit expenses, which rose 1.7X or almost 76% to INR 209.5 Cr in FY22 from INR 119.1 Cr in FY21, the largest part of which was in the form of salaries and wages. 

In FY22, Licious launched its maiden Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) monetisation program. With a total of over 3,500 employees in April 2021, the buyback option worth INR 30 Cr was expected to benefit more than 600 employees. In FY22, the startup did not bear any ESOP-related expenses.

With increasing competition from other established D2C foodtech brands such as FreshToHome, Chop Serve, and TenderCuts, along with the quick commerce biggies like BigBasket and Reliance JioMart, in the meat and poultry area, Licious doubled down on its advertising and promotional expenses during the year.

The startup spent INR 169.9 Cr on advertising in FY22 as against INR 66 Cr in FY21, up 2.5X. From roping in famous Indian wrestler Dalip Singh Rana aka Great Khali for several of its advertisements to creating promotions celebrating various occasions, Licious’ advertisements have become common across print and digital media.

Recently, Licious signed Bollywood actor Anil Kapoor for one of its ad campaigns.

Besides these big expenses, the startup also witnessed an increase of 83% in its legal professional charges to INR 17.5 Cr during FY22. Its miscellaneous expenses also surged to INR 80.8 Cr in the year from INR 48 Cr in FY21.

Meanwhile, as the D2C meat category, which is a $40 Bn sector globally, continues to grow in India, Licious has started category expansion. While it was a brand specialising in the core meat segment and procuring poultry, goat, lamb chops, fish, and exotics like crab meat earlier, it recently stepped into the plant-based meat segment.

Besides, Licious invested $1 Mn earlier this year in Bengaluru-based fresh pet food startup Pawfectly Made, adding pet food to its product portfolio.