ADIA invests $500m in India's Lenskart
Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) has agreed to invest USD 500m in Indian eyewear retailer Lenskart. It would bring pre-IPO funding in the past 12 months to around USD 750m.
The investment will entail a mix of primary and secondary shares, resulting in ADIA becoming one of the largest shareholders.
“Lenskart has rapidly established itself as one of the largest and most innovative eyewear companies globally. Given its unique technology-enabled and vertically integrated business model, we believe the company remains well positioned to build on its leadership position,” Hamad Shahwan Al Dhaheri, ADIA’s executive director for private equity, said in a statement.
“This investment is a continuation of our strategy of investing in highly differentiated, market-leading businesses in Asia linked to the region’s consumption-driven growth and rapid technological advancement.”
Temasek Holdings and Alpha Wave Global led a USD 220m round at a valuation of USD 2.5bn in 2021 with support from Bay Capital and Chiratae Ventures. TPG Capital sold some shares in the transaction.
Alpha Wave followed up the following year with a USD 100m commitment, which coincided with an approximately USD 25m investment from Epiq Capital. An additional USD 39.6m was provided by Chiratae, DSP Mutual Fund, and Axis Growth Ventures last November, according to AVCJ Research.
The ADIA investment would bring total funding to around USD 1.3bn, including a USD 275m round led by SoftBank Vision Fund in 2019 at an estimated valuation of USD 1.5bn. Notable earlier investors include KKR, which provided a USD 95m round in 2021, as well as Kedaara Capital, which invested USD 55.2m in 2019.
Lenskart claims to be the largest eyewear retailer in Asia and the fastest growing in India following its acquisition of Japan-based counterpart Owndays.
Owndays was acquired by L Catterton Asia and Mitsui & Co in January 2019, when the company had 115 stores in Japan and 142 across 10 other Asian markets. L Catterton’s exit to Lenskart last June generated the investor a 3-4x return.
The combined business has more than 2,000 stores, of which 1,500 are in India with the balance in Southeast Asia and the Middle East. Technology-driven, omnichannel engagement is core to the model, including artificial intelligence-enabled systems for improving customer experience.
Lenskart said that its revenue has now grown 60% for two consecutive years and that the company is now profitable. It plans to deepen its penetration in its existing geographies with a soon-to-launch factory set to deliver 20m additional pairs of eyewear in the next year.
“It is still day one at Lenskart,” CEO Peyush Bansal said. “Vision correction remains a big problem, and myopia rates continue to grow rapidly, touching levels of as high as 80–90% in some parts of Asia. Hence, we are still very early in our journey and have a lot of work to do to continue to make our desired impact in this area of critical need.”
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