Lenskart
File:Lenskart logo.png | |
Company type | Private |
---|---|
Industry | Prescription Eyewear, Opticians |
Founded | 2010 |
Founder | Peyush Bansal, Amit Chaudhary and Sumeet Kapahi |
Headquarters | Faridabad, Delhi NCR, India |
Area served | Worldwide |
Key people | Peyush Bansal (CEO), Amit Chaudhary (COO) |
Website | https://www.lenskart.com/ |
Lenskart is an Indian optical prescription eyewear retail chain. As of September 2019, Lenskart had over 500 stores in 70 cities in India.[1][2] The company had a valuation of $1.5 billion by Dec 2019 after Softbank invested around $275 million.[3] Peyush Bansal, a former Microsoft employee, founded Lenskart in 2010 along with Amit Chaudhary and Sumeet Kapahi.[4] In 2020 Lenskart generated total revenue of Rs.1000 cr. plus[5]
Financial backers of Lenskart include TPG Growth, International Finance Corp and Adveq Management.[6] Ratan Tata (of Tata Sons) and S Gopalakrishnan (of Infosys) have also invested in Lenskart.[7] In March 2018 Wipro Chairman Azim Premji invested 400cr in the group taking the valuation of the company to 3000 Crore.[8] By 2016 Lenskart had become one of the two top optical chains in India, along with Titan Eye Plus.[7] Its manufacturing facility in Delhi manufactures 300,000 glasses a month.[9] Lenskart also has a factory in Zhengzhou (China) which manufactures about 50% of the production.[10] Lenskart launched the eyewear brand John Jacobs in 2017 and for that brand aimed to touch Rs 500 crore in revenue in two years.[11][12] In 2018 the company became profitable (EBITD).[9]
The company is in talks with Japanese group SoftBank as well as the private equity firm Kedaara Capital for investment. These investments will make Lenskart the next unicorn.[13][1]
In October 2017, Lenskart's first brand ambassador was Katrina Kaif.[14][15] In March 2019 the company roped in Bhuvan Bam as their first male brand ambassador.[16]
See also
References
- ^ a b Dash, Sanchita (2 September 2019). "9 years later, Lenskart set to be a unicorn having fought off losses and welcomed investors". Business Insider. Retrieved 2019-09-08.
- ^ Sikdar, Shubhomoy (4 March 2019). "Lenskart sees more scope of growth in non-metros: CEO Peyush Bansal". Business Standard India. Retrieved 2019-08-31.
- ^ "SoftBank Vision Fund invests $275M in India's Lenskart". TechCrunch.
- ^ Poduwal, Sunanda (6 November 2011). "Peyush Bansal, founder of Lenskart in India, selling eyewear talks about his business journey". The Economic Times. Retrieved 2019-08-31.
- ^ Lenskart
- ^ Sharma, Samidha; Gooptu, Biswarup (27 May 2019). "Lenskart set to turn unicorn with likely $350M SoftBank funding - ETtech". Economic Times ETtech.com. Retrieved 2019-08-31.
- ^ a b Sarkar, Ranju (23 May 2016). "How LenskartBold text is defying the start-up trend". Rediff. Business Standard. Retrieved 2019-08-31.
- ^ Gooptu, Biswarup; Srinivasan, Supraja (2 March 2018). "Lenskart valuation touches Rs 3,000 Cr after a secondary transaction - ETtech". Economic Times Tech. Retrieved 2019-08-31.
- ^ a b Bali, Shinmin (4 November 2018). "Expansion Plan: Lenskart eyes 50% market share". The Financial Express. Retrieved 2019-08-31.
- ^ Gooptu, Biswarup (2018-12-10). "Lenskart losses drop sharply in FY2018, Revenue up 70% for the fiscal ended March 2017". The Economic Times. Retrieved 2019-08-31.
- ^ PTI (13 January 2019). "John Jacobs to clock ₹500 cr revenue by March 2021". The Hindu Business Line. Retrieved 2019-08-31.
- ^ PTI (4 February 2018). "Lenskart invests $4 million to expand John Jacobs brand stores". Livemint. Retrieved 2019-08-31.
- ^ "Lenskart to become the next unicorn! Softbank to invest $350m at $1.3bn valuation". Business Today. 27 May 2019. Retrieved 2019-08-31.
- ^ "Lenskart ropes in Katrina Kaif as brand ambassador". Moneycontrol. 9 October 2017. Retrieved 2019-08-31.
- ^ "Katrina Kaif is Lenskart's first-ever ambassador". The Economic Times. 10 October 2017. Retrieved 2019-08-31.
- ^ "Lenskart announces Bhuvan Bam as its new brand ambassador". Economic Times Brand Equity. 29 March 2019. Retrieved 2019-08-31.