NEW DELHI & MUMBAI, India—Lenskart, a top India-based omni-channel eyewear retailer and global investment firm KKR announced the signing of definitive agreements under which KKR will invest $95 million in Lenskart via a secondary stake acquisition. As part of the transaction, existing investors TPG Growth and TR Capital, who first invested in Lenskart in late 2014, will each divest a portion of their holding in the company. Lenskart was launched with a vision to revolutionize eyewear in India and now globally.

Established in 2010, today the company  is the largest service provider for eyewear in India, serving over 7 million customers annually through its omni-channel shopping experience, which spans online, mobile application, and 730 omni-channel stores in 175 cities across the country. In 2019, Lenskart also expanded to Singapore–marking its foray into Southeast Asia–where it is now a key service provider for optical.

Peyush Bansal, CEO of Lenskart, said, “At Lenskart, we are obsessed with our customers, technology, and making the world a better place through easily accessible, best-quality eyewear. More than 600 million people in India and 4.5 billion people globally need vision correction, but only a fraction of them use it due to a lack of access, awareness, and high-quality, affordable solutions.
 
"Lenskart was founded to address this gap by leveraging technology to make eyewear accessible to everyone—first in India, and now worldwide. We are also working on the larger human agenda of improving people’s quality of life by allowing them to ‘Be More and Do More’ with their eyewear through our innovative products such as Lenskart Airflex, E-lock, Neuro-science lenses, and Lenskart BLU.

“I feel we are still scratching the surface and have a lot of work to do over next 10 years in India and globally,” Bansal added. “In the next five years, we aspire to have 50 percent of India wearing our specs. Today’s announcement is a milestone and a step toward that goal.

"We are thrilled to welcome KKR as an investor given their significant experience working with leading global eyewear retailers such as National Vision and 1-800 Contacts as well as technology-focused businesses globally. We look forward to working alongside KKR to elevate Lenskart to its next phase of growth.”

Gaurav Trehan, partner at KKR, said, “As a technology-driven business, Lenskart is a strong, homegrown disruptor in India’s rapidly expanding eyewear industry. We are truly excited to work with Peyush and Lenskart’s impressive management team to support Lenskart’s growth and innovation in India and internationally, in addition to advancing its mission to provide affordable, accessible eyewear products for everyone.”

KKR is making its investment from its Asian private equity fund. Avendus Capital advised Lenskart on the transaction. Additional details of the transaction were not disclosed.

Payush Bansal spoke about Lenskart's approach to the eyewear and eyecare business in India at the 2016 Vision Monday Global Leadership Summit.