Eyewear brand Lenskart Solutions Pvt. Ltd on Monday said it has invested over $100 million in seed funding in Singapore-based Neso Brands.
The Singapore-based Neso Brands will further invest in consumer eyewear brands and grow them by leveraging synergies across the Lenskart Group to accelerate international expansion, the statement said.
Neso has also appointed a new chief executive, Bjorn Bergstrom, who was previously the chief growth officer and interim chief product and technology officer for the fashion brand NA-KD.
"It is our firm belief that the eyewear brands of today will not be brands of the future. And Neso is our initiative to partner with founders globally to help create eyewear brands of the future, " said Peyush Bansal, CEO, Lenskart.
Founded in 2022, Neso Brands seeks to invest in direct-to-consumer eye brands in line with the model of eyewear giant Luxottica Group.
"By investing in the most promising new brands in the industry and leveraging centralised resources across technology, manufacturing, and distribution, Neso Brands will be uniquely positioned to scale the eyewear brands of the future, " said Bergstrom.
With the fresh funding, Neso Brands looks to house brands and enable a quicker global roll-out by giving the brands access to shared resources, particularly technology, supply chain, distribution, and capital.
Founded by Peyush Bansal, Amit Chaudhary, Neha Bansal and Sumeet Kapahi, Lenskart is engaged in assembly, distribution and supply of eyewear, in addition to selling them online.
Recently, Lenskart announced the expansion of its online presence by offering its products on Nykaa, Myntra, Tata Cliq and other platforms.
In April, Lenskart secured $100 million (Rs 760 crore) in a new round from Alpha Wave Ventures. It counts TPG Growth, International Finance Corporation, PremjiInvest, Adveq Management, and Infosys Co-Founder Kris Gopalakrishnan, among its investors and was valued at over $2.5 billion last April.
In FY21, Lenskart’s operating revenues grew by 1% to Rs 905.3 crore against Rs 900 crore in FY20. The company had increased its annual profits by nearly 4.6 folds to Rs 28.92 crore from Rs 6.32 crore during FY20, filings in RoC showed.
