CEO Peysuh Bansal told ET in an interview that for the first time since starting up, the online growth has been faster than in the last 10 years. According to Bansal, Lenskart’s local manufacturing has become the backbone of not only the online India operations, but it is also selling India-made products in its global markets across Southeast Asian markets. The 100% local manufacturing has enabled it to do next-day delivery in eight Indian cities from 5-6 a few years ago.
“We’re just getting started,” Bansal said. “The next few years are going to be about scaling everything we’ve built—faster deliveries, more stores, more innovation—and taking India’s eyewear industry to the next level.”
“The Rajasthan facility has been a pillar for us. We’ve moved a lot of our global manufacturing to India—frames that we used to import from Japan, we now make locally. This has allowed us to control quality, reduce costs, and improve delivery times significantly,” Bansal said, adding he is making 25 million frames annually as well as 30-40 million lenses.
“We’ve moved from five- to six-day deliveries to three-day deliveries and now offer next-day delivery in eight cities–which started from Bengaluru,” Bansal told ET. “This has been made possible only because we control the entire supply chain, from manufacturing to delivery, here in India.”
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Lenskart’s new facility— for which the final agreements are to be inked soon—is expected to be operational in the next 18 months. Bansal said the new investment is coming at a time when the India market—driving most of the business–is profitable and the same is reflected in its overseas operations as well at a consolidated level. “This gives us the confidence to further accelerate our growth,” Bansal said.
Backed by SoftBank, KKR and Temasek, the Gurgaon-based firm more than doubled its FY23 revenue to Rs 3,788 crore and has clocked ‘significant growth’ in FY24 as well. In FY25, it’s now on track to close over $1 billion in revenue, according to people who know. Bansal declined to comment on FY24 and FY25 financials.
Lenskart bagged the top honours of Startup of the Year where the elite jury recognised its success in building a fast-growing, large-scale, omnichannel consumer retail venture while creating an entirely new category.
The new plant will also strengthen Lenskart’s position in India as a global hub for eyewear manufacturing, allowing the company to export to markets such as Japan, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East. “We are now shipping spectacles to Japan, Singapore, Thailand, and the Middle East. It’s a big shift for us, and the new facility will help us scale this even further,” Bansal added.
Omnichannel and consumer experience
The company’s omnichannel strategy, with its online stores and 2,500 retail stores, has been a key driver of its expansion. While its online channel has grown faster in the last two years than in the previous decade, Bansal remains focused on continuing to invest heavily in physical retail. He said the firm will add another 400 new stores this year.
“Our online growth has been phenomenal, but what’s really driving it is our omni channel presence. People buy online, but they also come to our stores for adjustments or to pick up their orders. The trust that we’ve built through our physical stores enhances the online experience,” Bansal said.
This execution on the integration of online and offline services has allowed Lenskart to tap into a broader consumer base, especially in tier-II and tier-III cities. More than 50% of its users are also first-time consumers buying prescription eyewear. Bansal said the high growth of the online channel is also aided by the rigorous work that’s gone into its app and website. The company has doubled the size of its engineering team to over 600, focusing on enhancing both the online and in-store customer experiences. “We’ve introduced several tech innovations, from face-sizing tools on our app to social-assisted selling features that allow customers to visualize and try different frames virtually,” Bansal said.
The company’s net promoter score, a key indicator of customer satisfaction, has risen from 65 to over 80 in recent years, signalling the effectiveness of its technology-led initiatives. “Tech is at the heart of everything we do, whether it’s improving the customer experience, optimising our supply chain, or reducing delivery times,” he added.
Bansal said one of the core focus areas at Lenskart is to continue focusing on consumer experience and deliver that at scale. “We have a belief that at the end of the day, it just boils down to your customer experience. The larger you become, with scale, it’s important to deliver what people call ‘managed growth.’ And for us, that has meant consistently delivering on our promise of being on time,” Bansal said.
“We have seen the same in industries like paints or cars, where companies have taken 50% market share by sticking to their core promise. For us, delivering that great experience, while growing, is the focus,” he added, citing examples of Asian Paints, Maruti and Indigo.
Market opportunity, overseas business and IPO plans
Lenskart remains the largest player and has been able to expand the total market size also by tapping into first-time users.
“You still have more than 75% of our population that needs spectacles and are not wearing them today. So, despite our growth, we still have a single digit share in the overall eyewear market,” Bansal said on the growth potential and the total addressable market.
In addition to expanding its core business, Lenskart is also eyeing new consumer segments. The company recently launched Cooper, a kids’ eyewear brand, and introduced what it calls a ‘highly innovative product’ called Creator, designed specifically for children with myopia. The product, with customisable frames and myopia-control lenses, is focused on kids.
“This is probably the most technically innovative product we’ve ever developed, and it’s designed to address the growing issue of myopia in children,” Bansal said.
Lenskart’s focus on children’s eyewear comes at a time when the market for kids’ products is growing rapidly, driven by rising awareness of vision problems among younger demographics.
Lenskart acquired Japan’s Owndays in 2022 to expand in Southeast Asia in its largest ever M&A. “We have picked up Southeast Asia (as a market), which has 80% myopia, and India, which has 60% myopia. So, I think we already have significant markets. We are not actively looking for M&A right now. To be honest, we already have a lot of markets in play,” he said.
In September 2023, its subsidiary Neso Brands invested $4 million for a “significant stake” in Paris-based omnichannel eyewear brand Le Petit Lunetier.
“Today, we have 13 cultures working in the company, all the way from Japan to India to the Middle East. How do we leverage the best of all of this? I think there has been a huge amount of work that has gone into raising the overall talent density and execution capability of the company,” Bansal said on how this will help Lenskart become a global firm.
When asked if Lenskart is also planning an IPO next year, Bansal said there is no rush to go public. “It will happen over time, but I still feel we are very early in our journey… We will go public when the company is at that stage—it doesn’t depend on market timing,” he said.
According to him a lot of companies are going public quickly because of exit pressures. “But we’re in a position where we’ve gotten some people who did huge amounts of secondary for our existing investors, which allows us to manage our timeline better,” he added.
Lenskart delivered exits of over $600 million to its investors in the last one year. In June, Temasek and US financial services major Fidelity together invested $200 million in the Bansal-led firm through a secondary share sale at a valuation of $5 billion.