Qishin Tariq · · 1 min readEyewear giant Lenskart buys majority stake in Japan’s Owndays
India eyewear unicorn Lenskart is buying a stake of around 75% in Owndays, a Japanese eyewear chain that operates across Asia, Nikkei reported.
Lenskart will buy the stake from an investment firm linked to luxury conglomerate LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton and a fund affiliated with Mitsui & Co. The purchase price was not disclosed.
Members of Owndays’ management will retain their stakes in the firm under the deal. The management structure and store names will also be maintained.
Lenskart is an online eyewear platform and has more than 900 stores globally in Singapore, India, and Dubai. Meanwhile, Owndays has around 460 stores in 13 countries and regions, including Singapore.
Lenskart is reportedly planning to go public within the next three years. It is backed by SoftBank, which owns about 20% of the startup. TPG and the International Finance Corporation were also early investors.
However, Peyush Bansal, Lenskart’s CEO and co-founder, has said that the company was in no rush to go public, as it had no liquidity issues and was on a “clear path to profitability.”
See also: Meet the 50 top-funded startups and tech companies in India
Editing by Miguel Cordon
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