Lenskart IPO: SoftBank, Kedaara and others sell shares at steep discounted valuation of $1 billion to founder Peyush Bansal

Peyush Bansal, co-founder and CEO, Lenskart

SoftBank, Kedaara, Premji Invest, Temasek, Chiratae Ventures and several other Lenskart shareholders have sold some of their shares to co-founder and CEO Peyush Bansal at a valuation of $1 billion, a discount of nearly 90 percent from the $10 billion valuation that the company is targeting for its IPO, regulatory filings showed.

Bansal, who already owns 10.3 percent of the company, will increase his stake by another 2.5 percent by buying 42.7 million shares at Rs 52 apiece, the draft red herring prospectus (DRHP) showed.

Bansal will pay Rs 222 crore to fund the buy back.

Moneycontrol was first to report on July 9 about Bansal’s plans to borrow around Rs 200 crore and fund this share purchase at a discount of 90 percent on July 9.

While Bansal is buying shares in the company, he is also selling 20.5 million shares in Lenskart as part of the offer for sale (OFS) component, the documents showed.

Promoters, including Peyush Bansal hold 19.96 percent stake in the company, and the remaining 80.04 percent shares are owned by public shareholders including above-mentioned investors.

Investors like SoftBank-backed SVF II Lightbulb (Cayman) Limited, Premji Invest-backed PI Opportunities Fund II, ­­­ Temasek-affiliated Macritchie Investments, Kedaara Capital Fund II, Alpha Wave Ventures LP, and Schroders Capital Private Equity Asia Mauritius, will be the selling shareholders in the offer-for-sale (OFS).

Individual shareholders and promoters – Peyush Bansal (2 crore shares), Neha Bansal (57.4 lakh), Amit Chaudhary (28.7 lakh), and Sumeet Kapahi (28.7 lakh) – will also be offloading shares in the OFS.

The eyewear retailer plans to utilise Rs 272.6 crore towards setting up new CoCo stores in India – Lenskart will set up 620 stores by FY29. Another Rs 591.4 crore will go towards lease and rent agreements for its already operational CoCo stores. The firm is also investing Rs 213.4 crore in technology and cloud infrastructure, and Rs 320 crore in brand marketing and business promotion.

On the financial front, Lenskart has posted a profit of Rs 297.3 crore in the fiscal 2025, compared to a loss of Rs 10.2 crore in the previous financial year. Revenue from operations in FY25 stood at Rs 6,652.5 crore, growing almost 23 percent over Rs 5,427.7 crore in the previous fiscal.