These startups deliver fresh fish and meat to your doorstep

Visiting the local market to buy meat or fish always turns messy. You might not like the smell, or you might not have the time. Sometimes, the meat or fish may also be a day or two old, and kept in cold-storages. A lot of foodies who like their meat fresh and juicy do not prefer the packed frozen meat. And let’s not even talk of the added preservatives!

But, India is a predominantly non-vegetarian country, despite what you might think. According to the Sample Registration System (SRS) survey of 2014, 71 percent of Indians over the age of 15 are non-vegetarians, and the country consumes meat worth $30 billion each year. The size of the Indian meat market is expected to triple by 2020. Some reports also suggest that 90 percent of this meat demand is handled by unorganised local markets.

It is this combination of high demand for fresh meat and lack of quality and organised supply that helped in the growth of startups delivering meat and seafood like Cupick and Meatwale, not to forget, Bigbasket and Grofer's meat and seafood sections. YourStory lists five startups that are delivering fresh meat and seafood to customers at their doorsteps.

Licious

Founded in 2015 by Vivek Gupta and Abhay Hanjura, Licious aims to resolve the meat conundrum.With partnerships with 180 vendors and 27 deliver centres with 600 employees, the company claims to have 3 lakh customers and delivers a minimum of 5,000 orders each day across five cities.

Licious raised $25 million from Bertelsmann and Vertex Ventures last month, andreported a revenue of Rs 12.3 crore in FY2017. It has processing plants in Bengaluru and Gurgaon.The company recently launched its pre-marinated brand that is available on e-commerce platforms.

 Zappfresh

Gurugram-based Zappfresh was founded by ex-MobiKwik employees, Deepanshu Manchanda and Shruti Gocchwal. Aiming to make meat-eating a pleasant experience, the company procures its meat and fish from local farms, slaughters them in hygienic plants and customises the pieces as according to demands, before delivering them to the customer's door at the earliest.

Founded in early 2015, Zappfresh delivers chicken, mutton, seafood, cold cuts and ready-to-eat kebabs and sausages.

Zappfresh claims that it has developed blockchain technology to forecast demands and has a 92 percent repeat rate. Initially bootstrapped with Rs 30 laks, it raised Rs 20 crore from SIDBI and Amit Burman, VC of Dabur India, and has both B2C and B2B models. Currently delivering to Delhi-NCR, the company plans to mark its presence in another metro city by next year.

TenderCuts

 Chennai-based meat procurement omni-channel company TenderCuts was founded by Nishant Chandran in January, 2016. The founder claims that they follow strict processes to maintain the hygiene of the meat and even use RO water to wash it. TenderCuts meat is also said to be antibiotic and hormone free.

The company delivers fresh and hygienically processed meat within 90 minutes. Currently working on a B2C revenue model, TenderCuts procures its meat and fish from fishermen and farmers directly, encouraging micro-entrepreneurship.

TenderCuts was born with the idea of giving non-vegetarians unlimited choice of meat, cuts and flavours, in the comfort of their homes. In a previous conversation with YourStory, the startup claimed to have over 25,000 customers. TenderCuts was bootstrapped at Rs 3 crore and later, received angel funding of Rs 4.6 crore from Suresh Krishn, MD of Isha Homes.

Hibachi

Hyderabad-based Hibachi was founded by Shekar Varma and Rajesh Tammisetti in April this year. The startup delivers to 11 locations as of now. Most of their revenue is generated from online retail. Hibachi also takes orders on call and over WhatsApp.

The founders claim that they receive 40 orders each day and are currently focusing on online retail orders. The company has tie-ups with Tin-Men lunch boxes, and are planning for more associations in the future. Hibachi also plans to expand their delivery locations.

FreshtoHome

Bengaluru-based FreshtoHome was launched in 2015 by Shan Kadavil. The startup delivers fresh, chemical-free seafood and meat in Bengaluru, Delhi-NCR, Chennai, Trivandrum, Cochin and Trisshur. The platform has a range of products including fish, poultry, mutton, steaks and fillet.

FreshtoHome owns the supply chain end-to-end, and goes directly to the source. It has created a WhatsApp-like interface through which it auctions orders to fishermen everyday. Fishermen with the lowest bid gets the order. Founder Shan says that seafood see a 60 percent markup in the wet markets as a number of middlemen are involved.

In a previous conversation with YourStory, FreshtoHome claims to deliver seven tonnes of products each day and has an active monthly user base of around 1.25 lakh.