NEW DELHI: Lenskart is buying a majority stake in Japan’s Owndays Inc. in a deal that will create one of Asia’s biggest online retailers of eyewear.
The Indian startup backed by SoftBank Croup Corp. has agreed to buy Owndays shares held by L Catterton Asia and Mitsui & Co. Principal Investments, the companies said in a statement. The deal values the Japanese chain at about $400 million, a person familiar with the transaction said, asking to remain anonymous discussing an undisclosed detail. Owndays will operate as a separate brand led by cofounders Shuji Tanaka and Take Umiyama, but target the premium segment, while Lenskart focuses on the middle and mass market segments, they said.
Lenskart will own a majority stake in Owndays but the deal is designed as a merger, Lenskart said. A spokesman declined to comment on the size of the deal.
The move will create a retail giant with operations in more than a dozen markets from India and Japan to Southeast Asia. Lenskart, which uses technology and supply chain automation to directly sell eyewear to consumers, will lean on Owndays to expand its presence in physical retail.
“About 4.5 billion people globe-wide need to wear prescription glasses but only half of them do,” said Peyush Bansal, Lenskart’s 38-year-old co-founder and chief executive officer. “We are seeing a $50 billion to $100 billion opportunity and a real chance to build an Amazon for eyewear.”
Lenskart should reach profitability when it hits $400 million in sales in the year ending March 2023, Bansal estimated. The two companies project combined sales of $650 million in that period, he said. His startup, which was founded in 2010 and backed by Falcon Edge Capital, KKR & Co., Temasek Holdings Pte and Premjilnvest, grew 65% last year and is projected to surpass that this year, Bansal said on a video call.
Bansal graduated in engineering from McGill University in Montreal and worked at Microsoft Corp.’s headquarters before returning to India. He co-founded Lenskart Solutions Pvt in 2010 outside New Delhi with three others he met on Linked In.
Read more at: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/92565882.cms
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