Lenskart narrows FY19 losses, registers strong sales

Lenskart Solutions, parent entity of the eponymous online eyewear retailer, narrowed its losses on the back of strong sales in financial year 2018-19 financial.

The company’s net losses reduced to Rs 27.9 crore in the financial year ended March 2019, from Rs 118 crore, a year earlier, according to regulatory filings.

Revenue increased 56% to Rs 468.3 crore.

There was a noticeable rise in expenses associated with the cost of material, employee benefits and marketing and promotional costs. Total expenses in the reported period increased by 20% to Rs 514.2 crore.

A rapidly growing brand, buoyed by deep discounting and only recently created market, Lenskart is almost a decade old company founded by Peyush Bansal, Amit Chaudhary and Sumeet Kapahi. With a 2,700 strong workforce, it has three offices in Delhi, one each in Mumbai and Kolkata and a technology centre in Bengaluru.

In January 2014, the company had set up its first offline store in Chandigarh. Currently, it runs several stores via a franchise model across the country. It had launched a host of online ventures including Bagskart.com, Watchkart.com and Jewelskart.com, which it shut down by December 2014 to focus on its core business. 

The omni-channel platform is backed by marquee Indian venture capital firms Chiratae Ventures, media entrepreneur Ronnie Screwvala’s Unilazer Ventures, TPG Capital, Ratan Tata, chairman emeritus of Tata Sons and Infosys co-founder Kris Gopalakrishnan, amongst others.

In September, private equity firm Kedaara Capital wrote a $55 million cheque for Lenskart, its first bet on the domestic consumer internet sector in India. Lenskart had also raised an undisclosed sum from TR Capital, Epiq Capital, Steadview Capital and PremjiInvest in March last year. 

Lenskart has also been in talks with Softbank Vision Fund, Japanese conglomerate SoftBank Group’s investment arm, to raise $350-400 million as primary capital, according to media reports. A confirmation on the development is expected to pave its way to India’s 19 odd strong unicorn club.