In a deal establishing one of Asia’s largest online eyeglasses shops, Indian eyewear retailer Lenskart will acquire the majority of Owndays Inc. of Japan. The SoftBank Group-backed Indian firm said it had agreed to purchase the Owndays shares currently owned by L Catterton Asia and Mitsui & Co. Principal Investments.
According to a Bloomberg story, the sale is worth roughly $400 million for the Japanese business. According to co-founders Shuji Tanaka and Take Umiyama, Owndays will be a distinct brand and target the luxury market. At the same time, Lenskart concentrates on the intermediate and mass market divisions. Even though Lenskart will own a majority share in Owndays, the arrangement is intended to be a merger.
Thirteen new markets in Asia, including Singapore, Thailand, Taiwan, the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Japan, will now be served by Lenskart thanks to the acquisition.
Tokyo-headquartered Owndays was established in 1989, and 2013, it opened its first locations abroad. In addition to Japan, it presently runs 460 outlets in 12 other nations.
“Only half of the approximately 4.5 billion people on the planet who require prescription glasses do so, “Peyush Bansal, the 38-year-old co-founder and CEO of Lenskart, said to Bloomberg. “We believe there is a real possibility to create an Amazon for eyeglasses worth $50 to $100 billion.”
Bansal predicted that Lenskart would become profitable when sales reached $400 million in the fiscal year ending in March 2023. According to him, the two businesses anticipate $650 million in combined revenues. His 2010-founded firm is expected to grow by more this year than it did last, with a growth of 65% last year.
After earning an engineering degree from McGill University in Montreal, Bansal worked in the corporate offices of Microsoft Corp. before moving back to India. In 2010, he and three other people he met on LinkedIn co-founded Lenskart Solutions Pvt in the dusty, industrial town of Faridabad outside New Delhi.
According to Bansal, the substantially expanded Lenskart won’t go public for at least 36 months. Northwest of Delhi, the business is now constructing what it claims to be the biggest eyeglass production facility in the world. According to Bansal, the $150 million plants would produce 50 million pairs of eyeglasses yearly.
