BENGALURU: Eyewear brand Lenskart has raised $100 million from private equity firm ChrysCapital. With this, the total capital infusion in the company stood at about $850 million in the past year.
The investment will be made through primary and secondary share purchases. This fundraising comes at a time when start-ups are struggling to raise funds. The company said this investment will help the eyewear brand to expand.
A few months ago, the eyewear company managed to raise $500 million from Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA). “ChrysCapital is excited to back a strong execution-focused management team that has established a dominant market leader in the eyewear segment. Lenskart has been instrumental in developing this market. With the acquisition of Owndays, there is an opportunity for Lenskart to expand across 10+ Asian countries in addition to the already large Indian market,” said Rajiv Batra, SVP at ChrysCapital.
Founded in 2010, the omnichannel eyewear retailer has a presence in the UAE, Singapore, apart from other geographies. In June last year, the company acquired a majority stake in Japanese direct-to-consumer eyewear brand Owndays.
Lenskart had said the acquisition will take the group’s reach to 13 markets in Asia including India, Singapore, Thailand, Taiwan, the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia and Japan. It has over 2,000 stores of which 1,500 are in India and the rest in Southeast Asia and the Middle East. It said the new factory will play a significant role in manufacturing the 20 million pairs of eyewear that the company plans to ship next year.