Lenskart raises $100 mn in Series-I; may close round at $250 mn at $5 bn valuation

Omnichannel eyewear retailer Lenskart has raised Rs 760 crore (or nearly 1$00 million) in a new funding round from Alpha Wave Ventures, regulatory filings accessed from business intelligence platform, Tofler indicated. The filings stated that this was a Series-I round with issuance of 36,41,646 series shares at Rs 2087.52 per share to raise Rs 760 crore.

Sources privy to the company’s fundraising plans have told BT that Lenskart is also looking to close the current round with a $200-250 million corpus ahead of its planned IPO, which could see some existing investors also participating.  “Yes, they will announce a larger Series-I fund raise round soon with Alpha Wave ventures leading the round,” a source said.

The company’s valuation is expected to be $5 billion, almost double than that of $2.5 billion valuation at which the funds were raised.

Last year, Lenskart raised $315 million, a funding round which saw the participation of investors including KKR, Temasek and Alpha Wave Ventures. The eyewear retailer had entered the unicorn club in 2019 with a SoftBank-led $231 million funding round.

A Lenskart spokesperson meanwhile declined to comment when BT reached out to the company.

The Piyush Bansal-led unicorn has a clutch of brands under its portfolio, including John Jacobs, Lenskart Blu, Vincent Chase, Hooper, Fossil and Aqua lens. The company recently announced tie-ups with leading online marketplaces including Nykaa, Myntra and Tata Cliq and is planning an omnichannel presence through online channels and brick-and-mortar stores.

Lenskart had said in a recent statement that its services span over its website, mobile application, and 750+ stores in 252 cities across the country. The retailer's next step will include expanding online presence on international marketplaces like Amazon & Noon in UAE, as per an earlier official statement.