Lenskart, which is preparing to go public, has raised about $24.7M in a new round of funding led by previous investor Epiq Capital. The news comes just a few days after the company received a $100M investment from Alpha Wave Incubation.
The investment came nine months after it raised $315M at a valuation of $2.5B. To raise the $25M, the Peyush Bansal-led company issued 9,10,412 Series I CCPS to Epiq Capital (INR 190 Cr). The investment will most likely be made in three installments over the next few weeks.
Nitty gritties of funding
Lenskart acquired $100M (Rs 760 crore) last week when Alpha Wave Ventures received approximately 3.6M Series I CCPS. The money was raised at a valuation of $4.3B.
The latest fund raise appears to be part of a bigger $200M to $250M investment that the company intends to raise as a pre-IPO round.
Lenskart, founded in 2010 by Bansal, Amit Chaudhury, and Sumeet Kapahi, claims to serve 100,000 customers every month. The startup claims to serve over 7M customers every year through their omnichannel shopping experience, which includes an online store, a mobile app, and over 750 omnichannel storefronts in 175 cities around the country. Lenskart increased its international operations in 2019 when it opened a branch in Singapore.
Lenskart secured $315M in July of last year from Temasek, Falcon Edge, Bay Capital, KKR, and Chiratae Ventures, among others.
Vision Fund
Lenskart announced the introduction of the ‘Vision Fund’ in 2021, with a $2M investment in selected businesses that are synergistic to the eyewear, eyecare, and omnichannel retail industries.
The firm acquired unicorn status in 2020 after obtaining INR 1,645 Cr ($231 M) in Series G funding from SoftBank Vision Fund II and Lightbulb Ltd. To date, the firm has received $459.6M in funding from investors such as Chiratae Ventures, TPG, PremjiInvest, Unilazer Ventures, and others.
Unlike in FY20, when Lenskart’s income increased by 90%, its scale did not increase at all in FY21. Its revenue in FY21 was Rs 905.3 crore, up from Rs 900 crore in FY20. Importantly, the company’s yearly earnings improved by roughly 4.6X to Rs 28.92 crore from Rs 6.32 crore in FY20.
