India's Lenskart raises $22m in Series C funding

According to a report posted on the TPG Growth website, Hong Kong-based TR Capital, and existing investor IDG Ventures, also took part in the round which valued the company at about $100 million. The deal represents TPG's first foray into Indian e-commerce.

The New Dehli-based firm has now raised nearly INR2 billion across three rounds; IDG initially put in INR220 million in 2011 before the company went on to raise a further INR530 million from IDG and Unilazer Ventures in February 2013.

Set up in 2010, the start-up originally had a portfolio of fashion e-commerce sites including Lenskart, Bagskart, Watchkart and Jewelkart. However, it recently closed the latter three to focus on LensKart, its flagship enterprise.

Peyush Bansal, CEO and founder of Lenskart, says the capital will be used to hire new talent needed to grow the company and tap into India's growing demand for eyewear. The company claims that around one third of country's population needs vision correction yet only one in four people actually wears glasses. 

AVCJ Research data show that Indian e-commerce investment was well in excess of $3 billion in 2014 with over 46 investment taking place. However, much of this down to a handful of blockbuster rounds for companies such as Flipkart, which raised $1.9 billion across three rounds, and Snapdeal, which raised in excess of $800 million across to two rounds.

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• Topics
• South Asia
• Consumer
• Technology
• TMT
• Consumer
• Technology
• TPG Capital
• IDG Capital Partners
• India