Lenskart acquihires a micro delivery startup, announces Hyderabad tech hub

Lenskart Solutions, which owns and operates omnichannel eyewear brand Lenskart, has acquihired Lucknow based milk and grocery delivery company DailyJoy.

Founded in 2020 by Satish Sharma, DailyJoy was launched as a micro delivery company. The acquihire will bring on board its three-member team to Lenskart, a statement said.

Additionally, the Faridabad-based firm said in a statement that it would set up a technology hub in Hyderabad to improve customer experience for its online and offline customers.

The SoftBank-backed company looks to hire over 100 engineers in the next six months for the Hyderabad centre. The hiring would primarily be across product, design and development, and quality engineering segments, along with openings for frontend, JAVA, android and iOS developers, and data science engineers.  

The team will help Lenskart expand its operations globally and enhance purchase experience for customers through technologies such as augmented reality (AR), computer vision and machine learning, the statement said.

“We are immensely excited to inaugurate the new tech centre in Hyderabad, and have Satish and his team onboard. With deep experience of setting up and building tech startups he is the right fit for Lenskart and its mission,” Ramneek Khurana, co-founder of Lenskart, said.

“We want to make Hyderabad a base for quality and consistent engineering to support the high-growth phase of the company. The team expects to station mature technology leaders and young local talent with 10x thinking that can spearhead this growth with focus, energy, and innovation,” he said.

Lenskart claims to have grown 200% over the last two years and employs over 1,000 people across roles. The online-first brand has a presence in 66 Indian cities through 500 stores and is opening up stores in the Middle East and the US, apart from deepening its presence in the Singapore market.  

Founded in 2010 by Peyush Bansal, Amit Chaudhary and Sumeet Kapahi, Lenskart joined the unicorn club after raising $231 million from SoftBank Vision Fund II in late 2019.  

Lenskart’s other acquisitions include reading glasses maker ThinOptics in 2018. It acquired a minority stake in Israeli firm 6over6 in 2017, which allows users to determine the power needed for lenses using a smartphone application, according to VCCEdge.

The company turned profitable in financial year 2019-20, turning in profits of Rs 6.32 crore for the year. Its revenue from operations grew nearly 90% year-on-year to Rs 900.27 crore for the reported period.