Lenskart and ShopClues to consider IPO

By

Isabelle Crossley

Published
Nov 30, 2017

Ronnie Screwvala, who holds stakes in Lenskart and ShopClues, has announced that both companies may go for an Initial Public Offering (IPO) within the coming two years, although no dates have been fixed as yet.

“Lenskart, we hope to take it to [the] public… ShopClues, we hope to take it to [the] public. There is no time-table [for the IPO]. But I would say in the next two years. I made about Rs 100 crore in Lenskart for 18 percent [stake]. ShopClues is much lower,” said Screwvala, whose stake in ShopClues is around 4.5 percent.

 “Lenskart may make profits from this month onwards. Today, it makes Rs 50 crore a month revenue and Rs 600 crore a year revenue,” said Screwvala. As the business seems to be doing well, an IPO may indeed be fruitful. ShopClues has also been expanding of late and the business, which was launched in 2011, now has over six lakh online merchants. Moreover, in the last fiscal year, the brand’s revenue grew by 11.7 percent.

When asked about his personal investment plans for the future, Screwvala said: “I invested about Rs 350 crore in about 14 ventures. I am not doing any more [investing] now. This is my personal money. I have a longer position on it.”

Both Lenskart and ShopClues started as e-commerce businesses and Lenskart has now forayed into offline retail as well with the addition of several brick and mortar stores. So far, Lenskart has raised around 700 crore rupees (approximately 105 million dollars) from various investors and is continuing to expand its offline presence.