Exclusive: Licious Shuts Plant-Based Meat Platform UnCrave To Focus On Profitability

D2C meat and seafood platform Licious has quietly shut its plant-based meat platform UnCrave, sources told Inc42. 

The startup began winding down UnCrave’s operations gradually last year and it has been completely discontinued now, the sources added. 

“The company realised that there wasn’t enough market for plant-based meat and they didn’t want to burn any more money on this,” one of the sources said. As such, the company decided to discontinue it amid its focus on achieving profitability before it goes public. It is eyeing its IPO in 2026. 

Questions sent to Licious didn’t elicit any response till the time of publishing this story.

Licious launched UnCrave in 2022 to offer a meat alternative to its customers during occasions such as Navratri, when many abstain from eating meat. 

The startup initially planned to target at least 20% of its core users of over 3 Mn for its mock meat products. Licious took on the likes of Beyond Meat, Shaka Harry, among others, with the launch of UnCrave.

As it readies up for public listing, Licious has been on a drive over the past year or so to discontinue offerings that are struggling to scale. Besides UnCrave, it has pulled the plug on a few more products.

This has helped the startup cut its burn rate significantly to INR 7 Cr to INR 8 Cr per month from INR 20 Cr to INR 22 Cr about 18 months ago, another source said.

Currently, Licious is focusing on scaling up its offline presence. While quick commerce platforms such as Blinkit and Swiggy Instamart continue to be a key revenue generating channel, the startup has been focusing on its omnichannel plan over the past year or so.

Currently, Licious has over 15 brand stores across Delhi NCR and Bengaluru.

Founded in 2015 by Vivek Gupta and Abhay Hanjura, Licious has a farm-to-fork model, meaning it owns the entire back-end supply chain. It has raised a funding of over $550 Mn to date from the likes of Temasek, 3one4 Capital, IIFL, among others.

On the financial front, Licious is yet to file its financial statements for FY25. In FY24, its net loss declined 44% to INR 293.77 Cr  from INR 528.5 Cr in FY23. Revenue, too, fell 8.4% to INR 685.05 Cr during the fiscal year from INR 748 Cr in FY23. 

The startup competes against the likes of ITC-acquired Meatigo, Zepto’s Relish, Zappfresh, FreshToHome, Tendercuts, among others.