ET Soonicorns Summit 2025: From AI-led demand forecasting to meat sentiment—why Licious built its own supply chain

“Covid was both a lifetime opportunity and the toughest stress test of our organisational muscle,” recalled Vivek Gupta, Co-founder of Licious, at the finale session of the ET Soonicorns Summit 2025 in Bengaluru. The pandemic years, he said, brought both extraordinary momentum and lasting caution. “In the first three months, we became 3x (our business tripled), then hit full capacity, then 2x again (it doubled again) in wave two. Consumers poured in, but when the slowdown came, those who hadn’t come for the right reasons went off. Rebuilding cost metrics and supply chain fundamentals took us 18 to 24 months.” It was a reminder that even extraordinary tailwinds can recede, leaving founders to confront the hard work of rebuilding.