Eyewear brand ClearDekho on Wednesday said it has raised $4 million (Rs 30 crore) in a pre-Series A funding led by Aroa Ventures which is the family office of OYO founder Ritesh Agarwal.
The round also saw participation from CK Jaipuria Family Office (Pepsi Bottlers AP), NB Ventures Dubai, Anuj Sheth (AAJ Ventures, Dubai), Kitty Agarwal (Info Edge), Anand Chandrasekaran, Nandi Vardhan Mehta, MD of Kaaf Investments, Magnus KJoller Holdings, Mandar Joshi of M Strategy Global, Venture Catalysts, SOSV MOX, Gemba Capital and others.
ClearDekho said it has seen 1,300% growth in the last three years due to a surge in demand for affordable eyeglasses. ClearDekho has a presence in the offline market through its FOCO retail stores (franchise-owned company operated) and converted local optical retail stores.
“The unorganised optical market has a lot of scope of in becoming standardised and hassle-free for the mass consumers. We have strong conviction in the team and their expansion plans. ClearDekho will be present in 100+ cities within the next 12 months and will continue to penetrate Tier 2/3/4 cities across India," Gaurav Gulati, head and chief investment officer of Aroa Ventures, said.
Founded by Shivi Singh and Saurabh Dayal in 2017, ClearDekho offers both online and offline eyewear shopping.
“The enormous $14 billion eyewear industry in India is growing at 30% CAGR year on year powered through huge demand of 250 million people waiting to get affordable eyeglasses. The post-COVID exponential increase in screen time across age groups has led to the surge in demand for affordable eyeglasses especially from new-age consumers from smaller towns which are driving the revolution. We strongly believe in creating value for our customers and as we set out to transform this massive unorganized sector, the next decade 2020 to 2030 would be defining for us,” CEO Singh said.