Lenskart aims for Rs 3,000 crore valuation with new deal

Lenskart Solutions is undertaking a secondary transaction estimated to value the Faridabad-based company at about Rs 3,000 crore. The deal is the latest example of investors that have, either backed some of India’s most richly-valued startups doubling their positions in the ventures, or joining the investor cap table at a time when there is an abundance of capital, while the deal flow pipeline remains inactive.

Ant Financial, the payments affiliate of the Chinese conglomerate, led a $200 million equity financing round in food delivery and listings company Zomato earlier in February, that saw long-time investor Info Edge dilute its holding worth $50 million in the Gurgaon-based company.

Lenskart over the last 18 months, will see TR Capital and PremjiInvest, the personal investment arm of Wipro Chairman Azim Premji, up their stakes in the seven-year-old company, having agreed to buy shares from IDG Ventures India.

The deal is expected to close by mid-March, according to the sources. It is, however, yet unclear if International Finance Corp, the private sector investment arm of the World Bank, Zurich-based asset management company Adveq and Ronnie Screwvala-founded Unilazer Ventures, the other three investors in the company, are also participating in the deal or not.

In a rerun of an earlier transaction in September 2016, PremjiInvest will, once again, pick up an undisclosed stake from IDG Ventures’ first fund. The earlystage, tech-focused venture capital firm will, however, continue to remain invested in Lenskart from both its funds. The transaction at the time had valued Lenskart at close to Rs 2,000 crore.