Omnichannel eyewear retailer Lenskart is planning to open 300-400 stores in Southeast Asia over the next two years. The company currently has 70 stores in Singapore, and plans to expand into Thailand, followed by the Philippines, cofounder and CEO Peyush Bansal told ET in Helsinki on Thursday. He was in the Finnish capital to attend Slush 2023, an annual startup and technology ecosystem event organised in Helsinki, featuring founders and investors from all over the world.
“There’s a lot to do in Asia now,” he said. “In Singapore, we now have 70 stores. One in three people wear Lenskart glasses. It’s a smaller geography but the impact is bigger. Next, we’re looking at Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines and Malaysia.”
“We’re looking at opening 300-400 stores in southeast Asia in the next two years. Initially, we go slow, but we like to go deep. We’ve been in Singapore for the last three years, and are going to Thailand this year, and after a year in Thailand, we’ll go to the Philippines,” he added.
While the company plans to expand its Southeast Asia presence through the flagship Lenskart brand, it is also looking at inorganic expansion opportunities. In June last year, Lenskart acquired a majority stake in Japanese eyewear brand Owndays, which also operates in Southeast Asia.
Bansal also featured in a discussion with Sumer Juneja, managing partner, India & EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa), SoftBank Investment Advisers, at Slush 2023, and said that the company is trying to build an ecosystem that continues to grow and build, citing the example of ecommerce giant Amazon.
“We were very persistent about acquiring Owndays…we made five offers that got rejected and the sixth one was accepted. My board said that we support you with this but if you don’t want to do it, there’s no pressure. Ultimately, it was my neck on the line, and we wanted to get it done,” Bansal said.
In March, Lenskart raised $500 million from the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA), a deal that saw some of the existing investors, including SoftBank Vision Fund, exit from the company. It also raised an additional $100 million from ChrysCapital in June through a mix of primary and secondary share sale.
In a secondary share sale, existing investors sell their shares to new investors but the money doesn’t go to company coffers. Of the total amount of $600 million featuring Lenskart this year, around $450 million was through secondary share sales.
Bansal said that the company wants to bring in long-term investors. “I have rejected a lot of deals at higher valuations to bring in the right investor, one we can partner with over the longer term,” he said. Onboarding a sovereign wealth fund like ADIA was on the basis of this priority, he added.
He was responding to Juneja’s question on where he sees Lenskart in the next five years, “I don’t think five years…which is why I now have ADIA come in after you…because they think 20-30 years,” said the Lenskart chief.
