Neso Brands raises over 100 million US dollars and names new CEO

Singapore-based global eyewear company Neso Brands, a subsidiary of Lenskart, has raised more than 100 million US dollars in funding and appointed Bjorn Bergstrom as its chief executive officer.

Neso is an initiative of omni-channel eyewear unicorn Lenskart, whose investors include KKR, Softbank, Alpha Wave Global and Temasek, and aims to enable promising direct-to-consumer brands across the world to become brands of the future.

In a statement, Neso said it would partner and invest in consumer eyewear brands globally and help them grow by leveraging synergies across the Lenskart Group to accelerate international expansion.

It will house these brands and enable a quicker global roll-out by giving the brands access to shared resources, such as technology, supply chain, distribution, capital and best practices.

To lead the company, Neso Brands has appointed Bjorn Bergstrom as founding chief executive. Bergstrom, an experienced direct-to-consumer executive, most recently served as chief growth officer and interim chief product and technology officer for global fashion brand Na-kd.

Commenting on his new role, Bergstrom, said: "Today there is a perfect storm in the eyewear industry that makes it ripe for disruption. Consumers have increasingly high demands when it comes to customer experience, branding, and choice, but incumbent players have been unable to keep up.

“By investing in the most promising new brands in the industry and leveraging centralized resources across technology, manufacturing and distribution, Neso Brands will be uniquely positioned to scale the eyewear brands of the future. I am very much looking forward to leading the company on this journey and working closely together with our investors and partners."

Peyush Bansal, chief executive of Lenskart, added: "With this investment in Neso Brands, we want to accelerate our mission of transforming the way people see and experience the world. Consumers want better and better every day and while people's quality of life has been uplifted through all other lifestyle products such as shoes, apparel and wearables, eyewear products are the same old with no innovation, just more expensive.

“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."