New Delhi: county map Japan is buying a majority stake own day Inc. In a deal that will create one of Asia’s largest online retailers of eyewear.
Backed by Indian Startups softbank group has agreed to buy the shares held by the Corporation El Caterton Asia and Mitsui & Company Principal Investments, the companies said in a statement. A person familiar with the transaction said the deal values the Japanese chain at around $400 million, asking to remain anonymous while discussing an undisclosed detail. Ondays will operate as a separate brand under the leadership of co-founders Shuji Tanaka and Take Umiyama, but will target the premium segment, while Lenskart focuses on medium and large market segments, he said.
Lenskart will hold a majority stake in OnDays but the deal is designed as a merger, Lenskart said. A spokesperson declined to comment on the size of the deal.
The move will create a retail giant with operations in over a dozen markets, from India and Japan to Southeast Asia. Lenskart, which uses technology and supply chain automation to sell eyewear directly to consumers, will rely on OnDays to expand its presence in physical retail.
“About 4.5 billion people around the world need to wear prescription glasses, but only half of them do,” said Piyush Bansal, 38, co-founder and CEO of Lenskart. “We’re seeing a $50 billion to $100 billion opportunity and a real opportunity to build Amazon for eyewear.”
Bansal estimates that Lenskart should reach profitability when sales reach $400 million in the year ending March 2023. He said the two companies planned for combined sales of $650 million in that period. His startup, which was founded in 2010 and backed by Falcon Edge Capital, KKR & Co, Temasek Holdings Ptey and PremjiInvest, grew 65% last year and is projected to surpass it this year, Bansal said over 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 out of New Delhi with three others he met on LinkedIn.
It has since grown into the nation’s largest optical brand, shipping more than 10 million eyewear annually, offering facial analysis-driven recommendations on its mobile app and home vision tests.
Tokyo-headquartered Ondays was founded in 1989 and opened its first overseas store in 2013. It currently operates 460 stores in a dozen countries other than Japan, selling more than 2.5 million pairs of glasses annually. El Caterton and Mitsui acquired Ondays in November 2018 for an undisclosed amount.
L Catterton was formed as a partnership between Catterton, luxury goods brand LVMH, and Groupe Arnault. Its Asian arm had been contemplating selling the Japanese series for more than a year. At one point, the owners of OnDay were in exclusive talks with private equity firms Longreach Group and Nevis Capital, Bloomberg News reported.
In June, it sold $360 million worth of minority interests in accounts managed by Hamilton Lane and other institutional investors, a move that raised capital for the Asia unit to redeploy in new investments.
Bansal said a public listing for the newly enhanced Lenskart is at least 36 months away. The company is now building the world’s largest eyewear manufacturing plant in the North-West of Delhi. Bansal said the $150 million factory will ship 50 million pairs of eyewear annually.
“Digital transformation is the key to our next phase of growth in the post-pandemic environment,” Tanaka, co-founder of OnDase, said in a joint statement.
Backed by Indian Startups softbank group has agreed to buy the shares held by the Corporation El Caterton Asia and Mitsui & Company Principal Investments, the companies said in a statement. A person familiar with the transaction said the deal values the Japanese chain at around $400 million, asking to remain anonymous while discussing an undisclosed detail. Ondays will operate as a separate brand under the leadership of co-founders Shuji Tanaka and Take Umiyama, but will target the premium segment, while Lenskart focuses on medium and large market segments, he said.
Lenskart will hold a majority stake in OnDays but the deal is designed as a merger, Lenskart said. A spokesperson declined to comment on the size of the deal.
The move will create a retail giant with operations in over a dozen markets, from India and Japan to Southeast Asia. Lenskart, which uses technology and supply chain automation to sell eyewear directly to consumers, will rely on OnDays to expand its presence in physical retail.
“About 4.5 billion people around the world need to wear prescription glasses, but only half of them do,” said Piyush Bansal, 38, co-founder and CEO of Lenskart. “We’re seeing a $50 billion to $100 billion opportunity and a real opportunity to build Amazon for eyewear.”
Bansal estimates that Lenskart should reach profitability when sales reach $400 million in the year ending March 2023. He said the two companies planned for combined sales of $650 million in that period. His startup, which was founded in 2010 and backed by Falcon Edge Capital, KKR & Co, Temasek Holdings Ptey and PremjiInvest, grew 65% last year and is projected to surpass it this year, Bansal said over 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 out of New Delhi with three others he met on LinkedIn.
It has since grown into the nation’s largest optical brand, shipping more than 10 million eyewear annually, offering facial analysis-driven recommendations on its mobile app and home vision tests.
Tokyo-headquartered Ondays was founded in 1989 and opened its first overseas store in 2013. It currently operates 460 stores in a dozen countries other than Japan, selling more than 2.5 million pairs of glasses annually. El Caterton and Mitsui acquired Ondays in November 2018 for an undisclosed amount.
L Catterton was formed as a partnership between Catterton, luxury goods brand LVMH, and Groupe Arnault. Its Asian arm had been contemplating selling the Japanese series for more than a year. At one point, the owners of OnDay were in exclusive talks with private equity firms Longreach Group and Nevis Capital, Bloomberg News reported.
In June, it sold $360 million worth of minority interests in accounts managed by Hamilton Lane and other institutional investors, a move that raised capital for the Asia unit to redeploy in new investments.
Bansal said a public listing for the newly enhanced Lenskart is at least 36 months away. The company is now building the world’s largest eyewear manufacturing plant in the North-West of Delhi. Bansal said the $150 million factory will ship 50 million pairs of eyewear annually.
“Digital transformation is the key to our next phase of growth in the post-pandemic environment,” Tanaka, co-founder of OnDase, said in a joint statement.