9 years later, Lenskart set to be a unicorn having fought off losses and welcomed investors

• PE firm Kedaara Capital is in talks to invest in Lenskart, say reports, at a valuation of $1 billion.
• Softbank too was in talks to fund the company.
• Lenskart has over 500 stores in India.

Eyewear retailer Lenskart is all set to turn into a unicorn, nine years after it was founded. Homegrown PE firm Kedaara Capital is in talks to invest in Lenskart, says an ET report. The latest funding would take Lenskart’s valuation up to $1 billion.

The report also says that Kedaara’s investment could be a secondary deal as Premji Invest (Azim Premji’s investment arm) and Chiratae Ventures will sell a part of their shares.

Earlier too, there were also reports of Japanese investment firm Softbank showing interest in the eyewear retailer and invest as much as $400 million.

Scripting a turnaround story

Lenskart is often the centre of many memes for its multiple offers messages it sends to customers, with offers and discounts. In May, it opened its 500th store in the country. However, it hasn’t had a smooth ride.

Lenskart had rapidly expanded with multiple stores. However, these huge investments didn’t pay off, leaving it with mounting losses. In 2015-16, Lenskart’s losses were at ₹113 crore. The very next year, they doubled to be ₹262.87 crore.

After this, the company took an active step to turn things around. Lenskart turned its focus to Tier 2 and 3 cities.

As a result, its revenues jumped by 70% to ₹118.04 crore in 2018, while cutting its losses by 55% losses. It’s own brand – John Jacobs – which seems to have done well for the company will touch ₹500 crore in revenue by 2021, say reports.

In February 2019, Lenskart announced YouTuber Bhuvan Bam as its brand ambassador along with Bollywood actor Katrina Kaif.