Chennai-based eye care products retail chain Specsmakers Opticians Pvt. Ltd has raised $10 million (Rs 64 crore) in a round led by Eight Roads Ventures India, the investment arm of Fidelity International, a company statement said.
Existing investors Fulcrum Venture India and Atma Ram Family Office, as well as other individual investors, also participated in the round. As part of the deal, Sandeep Singh, principal at Eight Road Ventures, will join Specsmakers' board, the statement added.
“This investment will allow the company to replicate its successful strategy for Chennai and Bengaluru in other key cities, and become a national brand with deep store penetration," Pratik Shah, founder and chief executive of the firm, said in the press note.
The Economic Times, which first reported the development, said that Fulcrum Venture made a partial exit through the deal.
VCCircle had first reported in August that Specsmakers had hired a banker to raise fresh funds worth $12 million.
Founded in 2011 by Shah, Specsmakers had raised around $1.1 million from pharmaceuticals and healthcare-focused private equity firm Fulcrum Ventures in December 2014. It has over 110 stores in Chennai, Bengaluru, and Madurai.
For the financial year 2015-16, the company reported a 77% rise in total income to Rs 11 crore from Rs 6.2 crore in the previous financial year, data from VCCEdge, the research platform of News Corp VCCircle, shows. Losses widened for the company in 2015-16 to Rs 2.18 crore compared to just Rs 50 lakh in 2014-15, the data revealed.
*The article has been updated to include the company's statement.
