Eyewear startup Lenskart has raised $500 million in funding from a wholly-owned subsidiary of Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA), in what marks one of the largest funding rounds in the recent past, at its existing valuation of $4.5 billion.
The investment will be made via a purchase of both primary and secondary shares and will result in ADIA becoming one of the largest shareholders in Lenskart and the completion of the transaction is subject to receipt of statutory and regulatory approvals, Lenskart said in a statement on March 16. With this funding, Lenskart has raised close to $750 million since 2022, the eyewear company said.
Lenskart will use the funds to deepen its penetration in India and scale its international presence in Asia and the Middle East, the company said. Lenskart claimed to have over 2,000 stores of which 1,500 were in India with the rest in Southeast Asia and the Middle East.
Lenskart said its new factory, which will manufacture 20 million pairs of eyewear that the company plans to ship next year, will also be ready to launch soon. The Peyush Bansal-led startup claimed its grew revenue by 60 percent for the second year in a row and is now profitable.
However, in FY22 (2021-22), Lenskart had slipped into losses even after it registered a 66 percent jump in its revenue. The eyewear startup reported a loss of Rs 102 crore for the year, against a profit of Rs 28 crore in the previous year.
“It is still Day 1 at Lenskart. Vision Correction remains a big problem, and Myopia rates continue to grow rapidly, touching levels as high as 80-90 percent in some parts of Asia. Hence, we are still very early in our journey and have a lot of work to do to continue to make our desired impact in this area of critical need. And ADIA, with its patient and long-term approach to investing, is a perfect partner for us as we embark on the next phase of our journey,” said Bansal in a statement.
Lenskart was founded in 2008 by Peyush Bansal, Amit Chaudhary, Neha Bansal and Sumeet Kapahi. In 2019, the brand joined the coveted unicorn club. It counts SoftBank, Alpha Wave Global, Temasek, KKR and TPG among others as its backers. According to data available on Tracxn, the company has raised over $1.5 billion in funding to date across 19 funding rounds.
In June last year, the brand acquired a majority stake in Japanese direct-to-consumer (D2C) eyewear brand Owndays, one of the largest omnichannel players in the category in Asia.
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