Lenskart gets Rs 392 crore from Kedaara

BENGALURU: Eye-wear retailer

Lenskart

is raising Rs 392 crore ($55 million) from home grown private equity firm Kedaara Capital, according to the latest regulatory documents. Lenskart, which sells its products through online and offline channels, will be valued at around Rs 8,200 crore ($1.15 billion).


Lenskart is issuing over 60 lakh compulsorily-convertible-cumulative-preference shares to Kedaara’s two entities at a per share value of over Rs 638, the documents sourced from

business intelligence

firm Tofler showed.

This is said to be part of a bigger financing round for the Faridabad-based company, which could be of about $400 million (Rs 2,841 crore), including fresh

investment and

secondary share purchase. TOI had reported last month that Japanese internet and telecom major SoftBank is in advanced stages of investing in the company along with a PE investor. Sources added Kedaara is also in process of buying additional shares of Lenskart from existing investors in a secondary share sale, which is expected to be of another $100 million. Lenskart has been seeing interest from multiple investors over the years and been able to get about $150 million for secondary sales where investors have got an exit as compared to $120-130 million in primary capital it has raised for building its business.

Kedaara has previously backed companies like Mahindra Logistics, AU Small

Finance

Bank, apparel brand Manyavar. Lenskart co-founder Peyush Bansal did not respond to calls, texts and an email sent by TOI.

Started in 2008, the company has raised over Rs 850 crore of primary capital and has over 500 offline stores. The company is raising new capital as it plans international expansion in markets like Singapore and others. In India, it competes against the likes of Tata group’s Titan Eye Plus, traditional offline stores and smaller online rivals. At the end of March 2018, it had a revenue of Rs 292 crore, while its loss more than halved to Rs 118 crore.

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