Eyewear retailer <keyword id="1518229" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Lenskart">Lenskart</keyword> on Monday announced it has raised $220 million in fresh funding led by Temasek and <keyword id="4675626" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Falcon-Edge-Capital">Falcon Edge Capital</keyword>, taking its valuation to nearly $2.5 billion. The company recently raised $95 million from <keyword id="2527060" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Global-Investment-Fund">global investment fund</keyword> <keyword id="6354544" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="kkr">KKR</keyword>, taking the total transaction size to $315 million to date. The current round also saw participation from Bay Capital and <keyword id="6947922" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="chiratae">Chiratae</keyword>, the company said in a statement. "We're already the largest eyewear player in India and in the top 3 in Singapore. Lenskart envisions to have 50 per cent of India wearing its specs over the next five years and become the #1 eyewear platform in Southeast Asia and Middle East over the next 18 to 24 months through organic and inorganic expansion," Founder and CEO Peyush Bansal said. The company said that fresh funds will help it expand its presence in India as well as scaling its growing operations in Southeast Asia and Middle East. "Lenskart has built a world-class fully backward-integrated omnichannel eyewear retail experience with extreme customer centricity," Falcon Edge Capital co-Founder and <keyword id="11674262" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="partner-navroz-udwadia">Partner Navroz Udwadia</keyword> said. The market opportunity for Lenskart in target geographies is expected to be over $15 billion by 2025. Along with the expansion, Lenskart is also planning to use the capital to deepen its investments in technology and AI-driven innovations to create a personalised experience for its customers. Founded in 2010, Lenskart is currently serving over seven million customers annually through its <keyword id="2535292" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Omni-channel">omni-channel</keyword> shopping experience with more than 750 omni-channel stores in 175 cities. In 2019, Lenskart expanded to Singapore -- marking its foray into Southeast Asia -- where it is now a key service provider for opticals. In May, Lenskart and KKR, a global investment firm, announced the signing of definitive agreements under which KKR invested $95 million in Lenskart via a secondary stake acquisition. SEE ALSO - <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/mobile/news/apple-could-finally-bring-the-always-on-display-feature-on-the-iphone-13/articleshow/84542970.cms">Apple could finally bring the always-on display feature on the iPhone 13</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/stock-market/news/g-r-infraprojects-ipo-makes-a-strong-listing-on-exchanges-with-over-100-premium-shares-open-at-1700/articleshow/84542747.cms">G R Infraprojects IPO makes a strong listing on exchanges with over 100% premium, shares open at ₹1700</a>

Lenskart raises $220 million to launch in Middle East, Southeast Asia

<img class="gwt-Image" src="/photo/46756239.cms" />New York-based hedge fund <keyword id="60126" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="80" keywordseo="Falcon">Falcon</keyword> Edge and <keyword id="6357722" type="COMPANY" weightage="80" keywordseo="silicon-valley">Silicon Valley</keyword> venture fund <keyword id="144381" type="COMPANY" weightage="80" keywordseo="Accel-Partners">Accel Partners</keyword> are expected to join DST Global which is leading a soon-to-be-announced $400-million financing round in taxi hailing service <keyword id="6354720" type="PERSON" weightage="80" keywordseo="Ola">Ola</keyword>, sources close to the matter told TOI. 
 Falcon Edge is expected to pump in around $20 million in the new round while <keyword id="2788417" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="80" keywordseo="Accel-US">Accel US</keyword> will put $5 million, sources said. Accel US was an investor in TaxiForSure (TFS) and became an Ola shareholder post its recent acquisition. Ola's other existing investors -including Tiger Global, Matrix Partners, <keyword id="6497288" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="80" keywordseo="Steadview-Capital">Steadview Capital</keyword> --are also participating in the new financing round. 
 
 The latest fund-raise is likely to value the company at $2.5 billion post the investment, as reported by this newspaper first in its February 26 edition. Russian billionaire <keyword id="303107" type="PERSON" weightage="80" keywordseo="Yuri-Milner">Yuri Milner</keyword>'s DST, a significant investor in e-commerce biggie Flipkart, is expected to hold just under 10 per cent stake in the four-year-old company , post the new round. 
 
 When contacted by TOI, Bhavish Agarwal, co-founder, Ola, did not offer any comments, while Falcon Edge could not be reached immediately for a response. Founded by <keyword id="2566840" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="80" keywordseo="Richard-Gerson">Richard Gerson</keyword> together with <keyword id="2788418" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="80" keywordseo="Navroz-D-Udwadia">Navroz D Udwadia</keyword> and James Minshull, Falcon Edge leads the pack of a new breed of <keyword id="42111" type="COMPANY" weightage="80" keywordseo="Wall-Street">Wall Street</keyword> hedge funds, a Tiger Global offshoot, managing more than $4 billion in assets. Its India <keyword id="6362476" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="80" keywordseo="investments">investments</keyword> include realty portal <keyword id="35061" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="80" keywordseo="housing">Housing</keyword> and <keyword id="2112984" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="80" keywordseo="Newshunt">NewsHunt</keyword>, a mobile news aggregation service. 
 
 
Hedge funds like Falcon Edge, Valiant Capital and Steadview Capital, among others, funneled big money into Indian consumer internet companies last year, fanning the already frothy valuations of these tech startups. 
 The latest round of fundraise for Ola, founded by IITBombay batchmates Aggarwal and Ankit Bhati in 2011, would put it right up in <keyword id="819204" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="80" keywordseo="the-League">the league</keyword> of the most valuable internet firms domestically .Ola's $210-million fund-raise led by <keyword id="163404" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Softbank">SoftBank</keyword> in October last year valued it at $650 million -post-money -making the Japanese investor the startup's largest investor. 
 
The cab aggregator is present across 67 cities and has received $277 million of capital across five financing rounds. Its biggest competitor taxi-hailing app Uber had stepped on the gas in India by doling out huge discounts to riders. However, its growth has stalled considerably post the rape of a female passenger by one of its drivers last year in Delhi.

Ola Cabs to receive $400mn funding soon

Leading "chai" (tea) cafe chain <keyword id="2385736" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="chaayos" source="Orion">Chaayos</keyword> on Thursday announced it has raised $53 million in Series C funding led by Alpha Wave Ventures. The company said it will use the money for tech-enhancement, hiring and store expansion. The latest round saw participation from existing investors Elevation Capital, Tiger Global and Think Investments. Founded in 2012 by Nitin Saluja and Raghav Verma, Chaayos runs 190 stores across six cities and plans to add 100 more by the end of this year. "The latest capital raise will help us deepen our technology investments to further enhance our guest experience and build a ubiquitous brand that is an integral part of Indian society over decades to come," said Saluja, Founder and CEO. "We are also continuously on the lookout to hire talent to handle the scale that we aspire for," he added. At Chaayos, people can personalise their cup of tea in 80,000 combinations with IoT-enabled tea bots called 'Chai Monks', Which started off as a niche use case, Chaayos online Chai deliveries now account for 45 per cent of revenues, said the company. "A unique combination of innovations in food and drinks offerings, strong leverage of technology solutions and obsession over customer satisfaction has positioned Chaayos as a clear leader in their space," said Deepak Gaur, Partner, Elevation Capital. "We are impressed by the team's customer obsession, which is visible in its best in class unit economics and customer NPS," added Navroz Udwadia, Co-founder, Alpha Wave Global. SEE ALSO: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/news/apple-has-dropped-the-second-developer-beta-update-for-ios-16-with-revamped-message-filtering/articleshow/92404124.cms">Apple has dropped the second developer beta update for iOS 16 with revamped message filtering</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/finance/news/heres-what-card-tokenization-is-and-how-to-tokenize-debit-and-credit-cards/articleshow/92403898.cms">Here’s what card tokenization is and how to tokenize debit and credit cards</a>

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Lenskart raises $220 million to launch in Middle East, Southeast Asia

IANS

Ola Cabs to receive $400mn funding soon

BI India Bureau

Chaayos raises $53 million to enhance tech, expand store and hire more

IANS