Lenskart acquires majority stake in Japanese eyewear brand for $400 million

Omnichannel eyewear unicorn Lenskart on Thursday announced it has taken a majority stake in Japanese eyewear brand Owndays in a deal that is reportedly around $400 million.

Acquires Majority Stake in Ownsday

The combined company will need to do this to enter 13 Asian markets, including India, Singapore, Thailand, Taiwan, the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Japan. The co-founders of Owndays, CEO Shuji Tanaka and COO Take Umiyama, will continue to hold stock and serve as the team’s leaders as the company continues to function as a distinct brand. L Catterton, Mitsui, and Principal Investments, the existing top owners, will sell their shares to Lenskart.

Peyush Bansal, co-founder and group CEO of Lenskart, stated that he sees Owndays and Lenskart as sharing a similar set of values focused on enhancing customers’ lives, and caring for people in our communities, as well as continual development and that our skill sets are also extremely complimentary.

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Lenskart will assist Owndays in creating a better online and Omni experience with its 300-person tech team, which is anticipated to grow to 500 in FY23. While Owndays scales quickly to serve premium categories, the firm claimed it will continue its rapid expansion in South East Asia and India to service the mass to mid-premium segments.

Owndays and Lenskart

Tanaka stated that since we built our first overseas location in Singapore in 2013, Owndays has become known as the eyewear brand of preference throughout several Asian nations.

Since its founding in 2010, Lenskart has shipped more than 10 million pairs of eyeglasses worldwide. It also boasts more than 20 million app downloads, 300 home eye test specialists, and more than 1,100 storefronts throughout India, Singapore, and Dubai.

Falcon Edge Capital, SoftBank, KKR, Temasek, Premji Invest, and Kedaara Capital are a few of the investors in Lenskart. In the area, Owndays has over 460 outlets in 13 markets.

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