Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA), a sovereign wealth fund of the Gulf emirate, has signed definitive documents to invest $500 million (Rs 4,000 crore) in Lenskart, the eyewear retailer said Thursday.
ADIA will invest via a purchase of both primary and secondary shares, Lenskart said, without specifying the names of the selling shareholders or the breakup of the amount to be invested via each route.
The sovereign wealth fund has invested in the New Delhi-based company at the same valuation of $4.5 billion as its previous round last year, two people with knowledge of the development told VCCircle.
As part of the secondary transaction, Kedaara, PremjiInvest, TR Capital, Chiratae and Unilazer will partially exit their stakes, they added.
Kedaara Capital owns 8.9% stake, while PremjiInvest has 10.4% in the eyewear brand. TR Capital, Chiratae and Unilazer own 8.6%, 1.9% and 6.1% respectively, as per VCCEdge, the data intelligence platform of VCCircle.
The data further said that upon completion of the transaction, Lenskart will have attracted close to $750 million in capital over the last 12 months, including recent fund-raising activities. The eyewear brand has raised $1.5 billion to date in primary and secondary rounds.
The deal is said to be the biggest funding round in about a year in India's startup ecosystem after Dailyhunt's $800 million raise in April 2022.
Lenskart also said that its revenue grew by 60% for the second year in a row and that it is now profitable. In FY22, the company slipped into a net loss of Rs 102.3 crore from a net profit of about Rs 29 crore in FY21.
The eyewear brand, operated by Lenskart Solutions Pvt. Ltd, reported a nearly 66% year-on-year jump in its revenue from operations at Rs 1,502.7 crore against Rs 905 crore, according to a filing with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs.
The company said it will deploy the fresh capital to deepen its presence in Asia and the Middle East. Lenskart now has over 2,000 stores, of which 1,500 are in India and the rest in Southeast Asia and the Middle East.
Lenskart said the new factory will be important for manufacturing 20 million pieces of eyewear, which it plans to ship next year.
VCCircle had reported in August that Lenskart was working on plans to shift its entire manufacturing in Southeast Asia, including those of Japan's Owndays, to its largest manufacturing facility in Bhiwadi, Rajasthan. Lenskart had picked up a controlling stake in Japanese direct-to-consumer eyewear brand Owndays in June, in a bid to place itself as one of the largest omnichannel players in the category in Asia.
Avendus Capital was the exclusive financial advisor to Lenskart and its shareholders on the latest transaction. EY acted as ADIA's advisors on accounting and tax matters, while AZB & Partners and Allen & Overy acted as legal advisors to ADIA. KPMG and PwC acted as advisors on accounting and tax matters, while Rajaram Legal & Khaitan & Co. acted as legal advisors to the company and its shareholders.
