This German duo launched an eyewear brand in Indonesia

Uthay and Csermak at a Franc Nobel launch event in Jakarta. Image from lucedale

When German entrepreneur Marc Uthay set his eyes on Southeast Asia in 2013, he thought the ecommerce market was already pretty cramped.

There was Rocket Internet’s everything store, Lazada – essentially an Amazon clone. Zalora, another Rocket-backed venture, specialized in fashion. On top of them, a range of local and foreign ecommerce startups offered everything from gadgets to shoes.

But after some research, Uthay did find a promising niche: eyewear.

He discovered that although millions of people in Southeast Asia need prescription glasses or contact lenses, the variety of brands and styles available was limited and the infrastructure to order online not well developed.

“Data from GFK Singapore shows that over 80 percent of the population in Southeast Asia has some form of myopia. But half of the people aren’t even aware that they have a problem with their eyesight,” says Uthay.

The goal was to capture a chunk of the eyewear industry in Southeast Asia by selling online. Uthay got Christian Csermak on board to help kickstart the company in Southeast Asia. Csermak previously built a custom-made eyewear brand in Germany, called Mercy Would – with a concept similar to Warby Parker in the US.

Uthay’s former businesses in Germany include a flower arrangement subscription service and a razor blade delivery service. Yet none of them brought the breakthrough he wanted to achieve.

So he decided to follow the siren call of bigger and better opportunities in Southeast Asia. Part of him was also excited about the prospect to return closer to his roots – Uthay’s parents are from Sri Lanka.The company was incorporated in Singapore, but Indonesia was going to be the core market and base of operations.

Starting with lenses

Uthay’s and Csermak’s first milestone was to build Lensza, a one-stop shop for contact lenses and eye-care products. Lensza covers a broad range of lenses from different manufacturers, with an emphasis on colored lenses, which are popular in Asia. They launched the site in early 2014. But the goal was never to build just an estore.

“Our idea from the beginning, in 2013, was to create a direct-to-consumer eyewear brand. But since we did not have the required experience in this market, we decided to start with Lensza as a very simple yet interesting retail platform,” says Uthay.

Once Lensza was up and running, Uthay and Csermak drew up a concept for a new, Warby Parker-like fashion eyewear brand for the Indonesian market. They named it Franc Nobel. The first collection of frames launched in June.

“[Franc Nobel] is a lifestyle brand with a noble objective,” explains Uthay. “We can deliver high-quality designer products directly to the consumer at an amazing price. The economics behind a direct-to-consumer brand are fantastic. That combined with the fact that other [glasses] are usually overpriced was what attracted us.”

The Franc Nobel brand is run by the same team and uses the same facilities as Lensza, which makes the operation easier to manage and less costly for Uthay and Csermak.

5 weeks from design to finished product