Lenskart, a renowned Indian eyewear brand, has recently raised funding worth USD 500 million from a subsidiary of Abu Dhabi Investment Authority. ADIA will become the largest shareholder in Lenskart after the completion of the transaction, which is subject to statutory and regulatory approvals. The recent funding at its existing USD 4.5 billion valuation is also one of the biggest funding rounds in the firm’s recent past.
The funds will be used to strengthen the firm’s business scope in India and build its presence across Asia and the Middle East. Lenskart will soon launch its new production facility, which possesses the capacity to manufacture 20 million pairs of eyewear.
Although it had suffered substantial loss in the financial year 2021-22, the startup has now revealed a revenue growth of over 60% for the second-row in a year and is now deemed profitable.
Founder of Lenskart, Peyush Bansal, has stated that correction of vision is a big problem that needs to be rectified. The rate of Myopia across Asia is also ever-increasing and thus needs corrective solutions, he added. Bansal has also commended ADIA for its patient and long-term investment approach, hailing it as an ideal partner for its continued support in the firm’s success journey.
For the record, Lenskart was founded in the year 2008 by Peyush Bansal, Neha Bansal, Amit Chaudhary, and Sumeet Kapahi. Out of its 2000 stores, 1500 are in India while the remaining are located across Southeast Asia and the Middle East.
The eyewear brand also became part of the coveted unicorn club in 2019 and has the financial support of SoftBank, Alpha Wave Global, KKR, and TPG, among other investors.
Lenskart also acquired a large stake in Owndays, a Japanese D2C eyewear brand and one of the strongest omnichannel players in Asia, in June 2022. So far, Lenskart has raised over USD 1.5 billion across 19 funding rounds. The latest funding brings the company’s total amount raised to about USD 750 million since 2022.
