Four Eyes eyes expansion with $350,000 funding round

Philippines-based online glasses store Four Eyes just raised a $350,000 funding round. It comes from Kickstart Ventures, Future Now Ventures, Wavemaker Partner, and various other angel investors who buy into the startup’s vision. Sorry about that pun.

Co-founder and CEO Pavan Challa points to traditional brick-and-mortar opticians and chains as his primary competitors, which according to him control most of the revenue generated by the offline industry for glasses. He adds that while these chains offer top selling brands, there’s a limited selection of eyewear overall. “In turn, they are higher priced, due to factors such as margins, cost of operations and the like,” he says.

“Secondary competitors are mom-and-pop optometric clinics, and they usually cater to area-specific barangays (local townships),” Challa says. “But most of these clinics carry a limited selection of eyewear with a much higher price point.”

Aside from claiming to offer lower prices, the startup also allows virtual try-ons for glasses on its site as well as the ability to try on a pair at home.

The startup’s only online rival in the country is GlassesOnline for prescription glasses, while for sunglasses it’s up against a number of fashion estores, such as the giant Zalora.

Getting the cost of a pair of eyeglasses to where it is today was not easy, says Challa. “Our biggest challenge has been bringing the price point low while still maintaining the quality levels,” Challa says. “Which is why we cut out all the middlemen and work directly with manufacturers.”

The team has also gotten creative in terms of how they help patients get the prescriptions they need in order to get their glasses. They started a partner clinic program. “We partnered with ophthalmologist clinics that our customers can go to for their prescriptions and to buy our products directly from there through internet kiosks,” Challa says.

See: New study predicts smartphone penetration in the Philippines will triple by next year Challa says the new funding round will help Four Eyes scale up marketing activities and staffing levels. It’ll also help the estore in its bid for regional expansion.

“Short-term plans are to be the biggest online optical store in the Philippines. Long-term plans are to be the biggest online optical store in Southeast Asia,” Challa says, adding that he uses the word “optical” rather than “eyewear” so as to differentiate the site from every other such store.

There’s also a social entrepreneurial element to Four Eyes. Much in the same way that Warby Parker donates glasses to people in need, Four Eyes has a ‘pair for a pair’ program that gifts glasses to some of the more than ten million Filipinos who cannot afford eyeglasses.