Indian eyewear start-up Lenskart plans an IPO within the next 3 years, outlook: CEO

Indian start-up Lenskart plans to go public within the next three years, CEO and founder Peyush Bansal told CNBC on Friday.

The company, which sells eyewear online and through outlets, announced this week that it has received $ 220 million in funds, led by Singaporean state investor Temasek and Falcon Edge Capital. Earlier this year, Lenskart raised $ 95 million from global investment firm KKR. It also counts SoftBank among its investors.

“I think we would do an IPO in the next 24 to 36 months,” Bansal told CNBC’s “Street Signs Asia”.

“We always want to reach a little more scale and expand our business in India as well as South East Asia. Then we will be ready to do an IPO,” he said, adding that the plan is to bring revenues to over $ 500 million.

Lenskart expanded to Singapore in 2019. Bansal said on Friday he was confident the startup could become the city-state’s number one player in the next 12 to 18 months.

The company, which is said to be valued at $ 2.5 billion, plans to use the newly raised funds to expand its presence in India and expand its operations in Southeast Asia and the Middle East over the next three to four. years.

Some of the capital would also be deployed in the form of investments in artificial intelligence and other technologies.

“There is a huge demand for high quality and affordable eyewear,” Bansal said of the Indian market. He said consumers buy an average of four pairs of glasses from Lenskart every two years, compared to a pair of glasses every two and a half years from other companies.

The biggest hurdle for Lenskart is creating a supply chain, according to Bansal. He explained that the company is building a manufacturing plant in India from which it plans to ship around 150,000 prescription glasses per day.

“A lot of that capital is actually spent on long-term investments in technology and building supply chain infrastructure,” he said.

Indian start-ups are entering what some investors have described as the “start of a new era,” where big names go public. Food delivery company Zomato debuted on the stock exchange on Friday and its shares jumped more than 70% at the opening.