SoftBank, Premji Invest & Others Looking For Partial Exit From Lenskart

D2C eyewear unicorn Lenskart’s early backers including Premji Invest, Kedaara Capital, TR Capital, and SoftBank are planning to partly exit the startup via its 400 Mn funding round. 

According to Mint report quoted sources, the above investors are planning to sell a portion of their stakes in Lenskart to Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA), which is participating in Lenskart’s $400 Mn round.

Inc42 has reached out to Lenskart regarding the development and will soon update the story with its comments.

The $400 Mn funding round will be inclusive of about $100 Mn primary funding. Post the round, Lenskart’s valuation will be plunged to about $3.7 Bn from $4.5 Bn pegged earlier. 

“Of the around $400 Mn investment round by ADIA, almost $350 Mn is going to come through a secondary share sale in which investors such as Kedaara, Premji, TR and SoftBank will look to partly cash out,” a source told the publication.  

The eyewear brand is profitable at present and will be focusing on inorganic growth opportunities in technology and retail segments, as per the above sources.

The development comes almost two months after Inc42 reported Lenskart was in the process of raising $39.6 Mn (INR 323.4 Cr) from Chiratae Ventures, DSP India Fund, and Axis Bank’s Axis Growth Avenues AIF-I. 

Founded in 2010 by Peyush Bansal, Amit Chaudhury, and Sumeet Kapathi, Lenskart earlier shared that it delivered services to more than 100K customers on a monthly basis and served over 7 Mn+ customers annually through its omnichannel format. 

Excluding the $400 Mn funding round by ADIA, the D2C unicorn has raised $205.5 Mn to date. It counts Ravi Modi Family Trust,  Alpha Wave, Epiq Capital and Avendus Capital, among others as its investors.   

In 2022, it also acquired a majority stake in Japanese eyewear brand OWNDAYS for about $400 Mn.

In the financial year 2021-22 (FY22), it reported a consolidated loss of INR 102.3 Cr against a profit of INR 28.9 Cr clocked in the previous fiscal year (FY21). Besides that, its total revenue grew by 56.7% to INR 1,618.3 Cr in FY22 as compared to INR 1,032.2 Cr in FY21.

In India, it competes with the likes of eyewear brands such as ClearDekho, Coolwinks and Titan Eyewear, among others.

As per a Statista report, the country’s eyewear market was pegged at $4.99 Bn in 2022. The sector is set to become a $2.24 Bn space by 2027, growing at a CAGR of 8.92% in the forecasted period (2022-27).

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