ADIA Picks Up 10% Stake In Lenskart For $500 Mn

Eyewear unicorn Lenskart and Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) have signed a definitive agreement for the latter to invest $500 Mn in the eyewear brand. The sovereign wealth fund will mostly invest through a secondary share sale with a small primary round consisting of growth equity.

The funding in Lenskart comes three months after it was widely reported that AIDA was set to invest up to $400 Mn in Lenskart, and days after it was reported that Chrys Capital was looking to infuse another $100 Mn.

The completion of the deal is subject to the receipt of statutory and regulatory approvals. Avendus Capital was the exclusive financial advisor to Lenskart and its shareholders on the transaction.

Earlier, media reports suggested that early investors in Lenskart such as SoftBank, Kedaara Capital, TR Capital and Alpha Wave Global were looking to partly exit the omnichannel eyewear brand. The secondary share sale, which forms the majority of the investment, is said to have given some investors a partial exit, though neither Lenskart nor ADIA revealed any names.

Of the current stakeholders in Lenskart, SoftBank is the single-largest, holding a 19% stake in the eyewear brand. Premji Invest holds another 10.4%, while Kedaara Capital holds about a 9% stake in Lenskart. Post the completion of the deal, ADIA would have around a 10% stake in Lenskart, as per media reports.

Speaking on the transaction, Peyush Bansal, founder and CEO of Lenskart said, “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.”

Hamad Shahwan Al Dhaheri, executive director of the private equities department, ADIA said, “This investment is a continuation of our strategy of investing in highly differentiated, market-leading businesses in Asia linked to the region’s consumption-driven growth and rapid technological advancement.”

According to Inc42 data, Lenskart has raised $879.6 Mn in funding between 2014 and November 2022, when it had last raised capital. Since the start of 2022 alone, the Faridabad-based eyewear brand has raised more than $205 Mn. The latest round would take Lenskart’s fundraising in the last 12 months to over $700 Mn across multiple rounds.

Lenskart has been deploying more and more capital towards international expansion in the last few months, having expanded to Singapore, the US and the Middle East. In June last year, the eyewear unicorn acquired Japan’s largest online eyewear brand, OWNDAYS, in a deal worth $400 Mn.

The acquisition made Lenskart the largest omnichannel eyewear brand in Asia, increasing its geographical reach to 13 markets including India and Japan, along with multiple countries in Southeast Asia.

Peyush Bansal has also launched a Thrasio-styled eyewear-focused ecommerce roll-up brand, Neso Brands. The company raised $100 Mn in India’s largest seed funding round ever in May 2022 and is backed by the likes of Alpha Wave, KKR, SoftBank and Temasek.

Lenskart has more than 2,000 stores, including 1,500 stores in India and the rest across the various geographies it operates. Its new factory, which will play a significant role in manufacturing the 20 million pairs of eyewear that the company plans to ship next year, will also be ready to launch soon

The eyewear unicorn reported a consolidated loss of INR 102.3 Cr in FY22 against a profit of INR 28.9 Cr in FY21. Lenskart’s revenue from operations surged 66% to INR 1,502.7 Cr from INR 905.3 Cr in FY21.