Lenskart closes $220 million funding round, plans continued global expansion

By

Isabelle Crossley

Published
Jul 19, 2021

Eyewear retailer Lenskart has closed a $220 million (Rs 1,463.6 crore) funding round which brings the business’ valuation to $2.5 billion. The business plans to use the funds for expanding in South Asia and the Middle East. 

 
Lenskart’s recent funding round was led by Singapore's sovereign wealth fund Temasek Holdings and Falcon Edge Capital, ET Tech reported. The investment brings the business’ total funds raised in this past investment round to $315 million. Private equity business KKR has also recently invested $95 million in Lenskart through a secondary transaction. 
 
“Temasek and Falcon Edge Capital are very strategic to Lenskart in terms of what we want to do in Southeast Asia and the Middle East,” Lenskart’s founder and CEO Peyush Bansal told the Economic Times.

“Temasek is a strong fund with very good knowledge of the Southeast Asia market and Falcon has high knowledge of the Middle East market.” 
 
Lenskart plans to continue to expand its brick-and-mortar store network alongside its e-commerce business and open 300 new stores this year, mostly in India. The business also plans to continue to expand internationally and become a top player in the global eyewear market, both on- and offline. 
 
“Our overall plan was to grow more than 50% this year and if all goes well we should get there but with the pandemic around you can’t predict these things beyond a point,” said Bansal.

“India is looking strong and we are seeing business bounce back very fast after the second wave. The run-rate is also growing--currently at around $200 million.”