key Information
- SectorHealthcare/Consumer
- Investment partnerChiratae Ventures
- StrategyGrowth
- Websitehttps://www.lenskart.com/
Lenskart
A leading eyewear company addressing a large market of 500 million+ people in India who need vision correction*
Private Equity | India
2016
Year of investment
3.8
SDG alignment
India
Geography
About
Lenskart is India’s leading eyewear company addressing a large market of more than 500 million people in India who need vision correction. Founded in 2010, Lenskart makes it easy for customers to access high quality eyewear via a tech-enabled omnichannel distribution platform, with an offline network of more than 1000 retail stores around the country. The company has now expanded internationally into South East Asia and the Middle East.
Why we invested
At the time of investment, the Indian market had structural challenges which included low awareness for eyewear, poor accessibility, and low affordability. This meant that the market had no large retail players with pan-India scale, a highly under-penetrated sector, high price and non-uniform experience, and no brand promise. Lenskart solved for these problems and pursued the opportunity to build a market leader in the organised eyewear industry.
Lenskart’s first mover advantage helped to establish a powerful brand expanding into multiple geographies. The complete control over their supply chain, from designing to manufacturing to retailing gave the company a competitive advantage allowing it to build market leadership.
Lenskart's large addressable market was also particularly attractive. In a large consumer market like India, where consumption growth is being driven by favourable demographics and urbanisation trends, Lenskart was well-positioned to benefit from these trends translating to stable long-term demand and growth for eyewear products.
Lenskart also benefitted from strong and broad senior management, and a high quality investor syndicate aligned on long term growth and strong governance. This ensured effective management and strategic decision-making critical for continued growth and success.
Lenskart was experiencing impressive growth of 100% year-on-year and demonstrated scalability via an omnichannel distribution model, successfully launching offline stores in multiple geographies. They had also launched private labels that offered higher margins.
Value creation
We invested in Lenskart in 2016. The investment was made alongside Chiratae Ventures, one of our core relationships in India.
The investment in Lenskart has been successful to date, with the company experiencing significant growth and capturing shifts in discretionary spending. Lenskart has become India's leading eyewear company and has set its sights on growing internationally.
In 2022, Lenskart acquired OwnDays, a leading Asian consumer eyewear brand helping it expand its reach outside India. Throughout the holding period, Lenskart has demonstrated impressive revenue growth, with more than a 15x increase in revenue. This growth potential, combined with the achievement of significant liquidity highlights the value of the investment.
In 2023, our private equity team sold 70% of its stake in Lenskart to multiple stakeholders including a sovereign wealth fund. The successful exit demonstrated the value created during the investment period. We continue to hold on to our residual stake in Lenskart to benefit from further growth driven by domestic demand and international expansion.
Sustainability
Lenskart’s investment aligns with SDG target 3.8, which aims to achieve universal health coverage and access to quality essential health-care services for all.
The company has a corporate foundation that contributes to solving this health problem. By addressing issues of accessibility, affordability, and awareness of quality prescription eyewear, Lenskart actively contributes to this goal, which aligns with our own goal to support the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable development.
Through our investments across asset classes and themes, we aim to support the achievement of a range of the UN Sustainable Development Goals and their sub-targets in areas such as decent work and economic growth; industry, innovation and infrastructure; sustainable cities and communities; responsible consumption and production; and reduction of inequalities, amongst others.
*The Economic Times, as of 2024
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The information provided herein is only for professional clients. The case study provided is only for illustrative purpose and is not a recommendation to buy or sell any financial instruments or adopt a specific investment strategy.
Investments with similar characteristics, as well as their past performance may not be repeated in the future. Each asset class have specific risks. Investments in private assets involve a higher degree of risk than more traditional investments. The case study may have been chosen for a variety of reasons, such as being representative of the investment capabilities of the investment team. The circumstances presented are unique to each deal. They do not represent a full picture of the investments made by their respective team and of the product(s) that invested into the asset(s) presented in the case study.