Telecommunications group SoftBank’s Vision Fund has entered talks to invest $350m in India-based online eyewear retailer Lenskart, the Economic Times reported yesterday, citing two people with knowledge of the matter.
Founded as multichannel e-commerce company Valyoo Technologies, Lenskart sells eyewear, predominantly through an online platform, though it has opened a range of brick-and-mortar stores in India.
The company has begun moving into international markets beginning with Singapore where it plans to open upwards of 50 stores in the next three years, before expanding into Southeast Asia and the Middle East.
The prospective deal would value the company at about $1.3bn according to the sources, a sizeable jump from the $460m to $470m valuation Lenskart at which last raised money, according to ET.
A source said: “Their talks have been on for a few months and a deal is likely soon. SoftBank wanted to pump a bigger amount for Lenskart to aggressively expand outside of India but the company did not agree to it.”
Private equity firm Carlyle Group had been in discussions to acquire Lenskart but its $700m bid was considered too small for the company’s founders, ET reported.
Lenskart initially raised $35m from investors including IDG Ventures India, Unilazer Ventures, TPG Growth and TR Capital across three rounds between 2011 and 2015.
The company added $60m in a 2016 series D round led by International Finance Corporation that included IDG Ventures India, TPG Growth, Adveq Management, Ratan Tata and Kris Gopalakrishnan, at a reported $240m to $255m valuation.
PremjiInvest acquired $30m of shares from investors including IDG Ventures India in a secondary deal later the same year, before Unilazer Ventures bought $2.9m of shares in early 2017, and Epiq Capital invested an undisclosed sum in August 2018, also through secondary transactions.
Steadview Capital paid $30m to $35m for a 5% stake in Lenskart in 2018, and recently acquired $20m of shares from Unilazer owner Ronnie Screwvala and TR Capital, according to ET.
