Azim Premji joins Ratan Tata with a Lenskart investment

Lenskart.com, the popular eyewear ecommerce portal has raised funding from Premji Invest, the investment office of Azim Premji, Founder of the Wipro Group. With this move, Azim Premji joins Ratan Tata as another high profile investor in the company.

Premji Invest has had a strong focus on consumer and retail brands and upholds the reputation of being a long term partner of brands like FabIndia, Myntra, Future Lifestyle Fashions and Vasmol. Founded in 2006, Premji Invest has so far funded more than 40 companies across sectors such as technology, consumer and retail, healthcare, and financial services.

ET reported that Premji Invest has invested about 200 crores in the company in exchange of Lenskart’s previous investor- IDG ventures stake and a fresh shares of about Rs. 65 crores at a valuation of Rs. 1800 crores.

Commenting on the collaboration, Peyush Bansal, CEO and Founder, Lenskart said, “We are thrilled and humbled with the confidence shown by Premji Invest in Lenskart. They can continue to be an investor even when we go public in 3-4 years. We intend to grow strategically thereby strengthening our presence via both online and offline channels.”

Lenskart currently operates 200 stores where customers can either pickup their order or get it home delivered. The company is planning to expand to 400 stores by 2016-end. Lenskart has an annualised revenue run rate of about Rs. 350 crores. It’s planning to ensure that its offline channels contribute to 50% of the revenue in the coming two years.