Licious bags Thought Leadership Award for ESG Goals

Bengaluru-based Licious, India’s first D2C unicorn, was honored with the Thought Leadership Award for its ambitious ESG goals at the recently concluded ESG Summit & Awards 2021. The prestigious recognition acknowledges and applauds Licious’s pledge to comply with the global ESG framework.

This marks a key milestone for India’s largest tech-first, full-stacked, D2C animal protein brand, renowned for leveraging technology to set new quality, sustainability, and transparency benchmarks in the largely unorganized meat and seafood sector. The brand is synonymous with delivering high-quality and superior animal protein products to consumers and revolutionizing the category itself.

This aligns with the ESG Summit & Awards’ purpose to recognize and inspire companies to ensure ESG percolates through every aspect of the business – vision, strategy, value creation, and human engagement – to discover sustainable growth for everyone, including business, planet and people. The Award, which places Licious in the league of inspiring companies such as Genpact, ITC, and Vedanta in terms of its ESG commitment, further emboldens the company to take on mightier ESG goals.

Commenting on the latest recognition, Rajesh Kumaramenon, chief quality & sustainability officer, Licious, said, “We are delighted and humbled at receiving the Thought Leadership Award at the prestigious ESG Summit & Awards 2021. While every recognition is special, this one is truly close to our hearts as ESG has defined our purpose and operations since our inception in 2015. Responsibility towards the environment, the poultry farmers, fishermen and the communities we work with has been an integral part of our growth. Despite the traditional obstacles prevalent in the industry, we set out to build a highly controlled value chain – from farm to fork. We believe that an ESG-focused approach is the only way forward for businesses looking at a resilient future. And this award has only strengthened our resolve to set new benchmarks in terms of our ESG goals in the years to come.”

Earlier this year, Ernst & Young conducted an ESG compliance assessment for Licious to help the company arrive at a roadmap to becoming an ESG-compliant company. The company then launched an ESG & Sustainability division post the assessment to help achieve its global ESG compliance goals.

Licious’ commitment to ESG is the core driver for its growth vision. It has seen the company experience high affinity among diverse stakeholders, including vendor communities, customers and investors.

The first meat and seafood brand from India to be certified with FSSC22000 – one of the highest food safety certifications in the world – Licious got a billion-dollar valuation earlier this year, making it the first D2C unicorn in the country.