Licious invests $1 million in pet food startup Pawfectly Made

Abhay Hanjura & Vivek Gupta, Co-founders, Licious

Direct-to-consumer (D2C) brand Licious has invested $1 million in a Bengaluru-based fresh pet food startup, Pawfectly Made, making its first strategic investment. 

Earlier last month, Moneycontrol had reported that the company will be investing in strategic acquisition and widening and deepening the brand's reach.

Arpita Ganesh, who had earlier founded online lingerie brand Buttercaps which was acquired by Amazon, started Pawfectly in 2020. 

Pawfectly will continue to function as a separate entity with its own production processes and supply chain.

Speaking to Moneycontrol, Nichelle Kamat, vice president of category at  Licious, said the company will be investing in areas where Licious can integrate back-end and front-end operations as well as smaller brands in the ready-to-eat segment. 

“Pawfectly is a good strategic fit for us given the shared vision and synergies across the value chain. The investment will give us access to a unique consumer play and product portfolio that will complement our infrastructure.”

Licious raised $150 million in Series F2 within six months of becoming a unicorn. The round was led by Amansa Capital, along with Kotak PE and Axis Growth Avenues AIF-I. Last year October, the company raised $52 million at a valuation of a billion dollars, making it one of the first unicorns in India's thriving D2C space.​

Moneycontrol reported on April 26 overall funding in the D2C space has increased to $153.4 million this March quarter from $105 million a year ago. However, the industry expects consolidation this year as a number of D2C brands are flatlining due to overall negative market sentiment and customers shopping offline after Covid, experts say.

Sectors including beauty and wellness, apparel and accessories, and food will witness consolidation this year, experts say.