Eyewear retailer Lenskart gets new investors as Steadview, Epiq Capital buy shares

Hong Kong-based hedge fund Steadview Capital, tech investment firm Epiq Capital and HK-based speciality secondary investments fund TR Capital have bought shares worth $70-75 million (Rs 481-515.4 crore) in Lenskart Solutions Pvt. Ltd, The Economic Times reported.

The transaction values the Ratan Tata-backed eyewear retailer startup at Rs 3,400 crore ($495 million).  

This is the second such deal at Lenskart in the last five months, going by the report. Through the transaction, Steadview Capital and Epiq Capital have come in as new investors. Moreover, The Economic Times quoted Lenskart chief executive Peyush Bansal as saying that the firm is now profitable.

In April, TR Capital said it had acquired shares from TPG Growth and Unilazer Ventures, taking its stake in the eyewear retailer to 10%.

Lenskart, Steadview, TR Capital, Unilazer and Epiq did not respond to requests for comments.  

In November 2017, VCCircle had reported that Lenskart was looking to raise large private equity funds.

Other investors in Lenskart include International Finance Corporation, Premji Invest, Adveq Management, and Kris Gopalakrishnan, co-founder of Indian tech giant Infosys.

The eyewear retailer was founded in 2008 by Peyush Bansal, Amit Chaudhary, Neha Bansal and Sumeet Kapahi. In addition to the online platform, it has a wholesale division engaged in assembly, distribution and supply of eyewear.

In January 2014, the company had set up its first offline store in Chandigarh. Now, it has 300 stores across 90 cities.

The company had launched a host of new online businesses including Bagskart.com, Watchkart.com and Jewelskart.com, which it shut down by December 2014 to focus on its core.

The retailer has also invested in a firm.

In May this year, Lenskart backed US-based reading glasses maker ThinOptics.