Lenskart: Lenskart sets sights on round at $6 billion valuation

Lenskart may well be valued 20% more than in June, if discussions for a fresh secondary share sale of $200-300 million at a valuation of $6 billion bear fruit, people in the know told ET. Existing investors Fidelity, Kedaara Capital and a third “significant early investor” now want to increase holding in Lenskart, they said.

“The round’s final structure and size would depend on finding the right number of sellers,” said the people. The company narrowed losses significantly in FY24, with profit in sight.

Much in demand

“Multiple investors have held talks for stitching up this round,” said a person aware of developments.

The omnichannel eyewear retailer got $200 million from Fidelity and Temasek at a $5 billion valuation in the previous secondary fundraise.

ET reported on November 5 that Fidelity has marked up Lenskart’s valuation to $5.6 billion— a 12% increase of the fair value in the company’s books.

Over the last year, Lenskart has recorded secondary deals of up to $650 million—the most by a privately-held startup since revival of such late-stage deals in the ecosystem.“There are conversions underway and there is demand even at $6 billion (valuation) from existing investors. The key is to find the right sellers. One of the top investors has also been approached for a secondary,” said one of the people cited. “This may take some time to reach fruition as demand is higher than available sellers.”

In a secondary share sale, new investors buy shares from existing investors and the capital doesn’t go to company coffers.

Even during the funding drought of 2022-23, Lenskart had bagged investment from the likes of KKR and Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA), with a slew of big-ticket deals.

“Lenskart more than doubled its growth in FY23. In FY24, it grew revenue over 40% while nearly hitting profits—emerging as a fast-growing firm where growth is sustainable. This has led to the interest and a potential IPO in about two years,” a person aware of the ongoing discussions told ET.

In total, Lenskart has closed $1.08-billion rounds since inception in 2010.

Lenskart chief executive Peyush Bansal, Fidelity and Kedaara did not respond to ET’s email query on the latest developments.

Lenskart won the prestigious Economic Times Startup of the Year Award this year. The retailer narrowed its losses to Rs 10 crore in FY24 and is on track to remain Ebitda positive in FY25. ET reported in October that the SoftBank-backed firm is on a $1 billion revenue run-rate for the ongoing fiscal year, and is setting up its largest manufacturing plant.

SoftBank with a 16.5% stake, Temasek with 7.7%, Kedaara with 7.2%, and Premji Invest with 5.6%, are among those with more than a 5% in the Gurgaon-based firm. Alpha Wave Global, entrepreneur Ronnie Screwvala’s Unilazer Ventures, Steadview Capital are among other investors in the company.

Secondaries in demand

Lenskart, which also has sizeable operations in Southeast Asia, is among the top late-stage startups to have consistently offered secondary exits while onboarding new investors.

In 2024, most $100 million-plus deals had a secondary share sale baked in, as equity capital is still chasing a limited number of assets.

ETtech

Early investors—due to their fund cycles—have managed to part-sell stake in various firms, leading to new late-stage investors joining the cap table. For instance, a sizeable number of shares have exchanged hands between investors at edtech PhysicsWallah, beauty retailer Purplle and health supplement brand Healthkart.

“This is a secular trend across well-performing companies. Lenskart might be an outlier in terms of the pricing gains in the last few secondaries, but that is the outcome of its execution while growing,” said a venture investor who tracks the startup.

Typically, secondaries are at a discount to the last equity funding round valuation.

Lenskart’s Bansal is also in no hurry to go public. “It will happen over time, but 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 told ET in an interview in October.

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,” Bansal had said.

Lenskart has outlined $200 million for its new plant. It operates a manufacturing unit in Rajasthan, which has helped it reduce delivery timelines across various markets, Bansal had told ET. The brand has 2,500 retail stores and that’s been a key driver of its omnichannel expansion. It plans to add 400 more this year.