Lenskart's roll up arm Neso Brands raises $100 million

Neso Brands, a roll-up subsidiary of eyewear retailer Lenskart, has raised $100 million from KKR, Softbank, Alpha Wave Global and Temasek. Further, the company has also roped in Bjorn Bergstrom, who has joined the founding team as chief executive officer (CEO). 

Bergstrom’s experience prior to this includes working as a venture capital investor focusing on early stage growth startups, management consulting as well as operational roles at consumer startups.

With the raised funds, Neso Brands will partner and invest in consumer eyewear brands around the world and grow these brands by leveraging synergies across the Lenskart Group to accelerate international expansion.

“By investing in the most promising new brands in the industry and leveraging centralized resources across technology, manufacturing and distribution, Neso Brands will be uniquely positioned to scale the eyewear brands of the future. I am very much looking forward to leading the company on this journey and working closely together with our investors and partners,” said Bergstrom.

Neso Brands is a Singapore-based global eyewear company founded in 2022. Neso Brands will house eyewear brands and enable a quicker global roll-out by giving the brands access to shared resources particularly technology, supply chain, distribution, capital and best practices.

Peyush Bansal, CEO of Lenskart, said, “With this investment in Neso Brands, we want to accelerate our mission of transforming the way people see and experience the world. Consumers want better and better every day and while people's quality of life has been uplifted through all other lifestyle products such as shoes, apparel and wearables, eyewear products are the same old with no innovation, just more expensive. It is our firm belief that the eyewear brands of today will not be brands of the future. And Neso is our initiative to partner with founders globally to help create eyewear brands of the future.”

Lenskart has been one of the early unicorns in the Direct-to-consumer space and is currently valued at $4.3 billion after it raised $100 million in a new round from Alpha Wave Ventures last month.

Over the past year, roll-up e-commerce has been one of the hottest sectors. which have taken the Indian startup and venture capital by storm, with  players including Global Bees Mensa Brands, 10 Club, Powehouse91 raising big capital and turning unicorn within months of operations.