Lenskart acquires Japanese eyewear firm Owndays: 5 things to know about mega-deal

Lenskart has taken a majority stake in Japanese eyewear brand Owndays in a deal that is reportedly around $400 million.

New Delhi: Omnichannel eyewear unicorn Lenskart has taken a majority stake in Japanese eyewear brand Owndays. Peyush Bansal, Co-Founder, and Group CEO at Lenskart, said that he sees Lenskart and Owndays sharing the same set of values-centred around enriching customers’ lives and caring for people in the company’s communities, as well as continuous learning. “We also have very complementary skill sets," he added.

Owndays was founded by Co-founders – CEO Shuji Tanaka and COO Take Umiyama – in 2008. "Owndays has been recognized as the eyewear brand of choice across multiple countries in Asia ever since we opened our first overseas store, in Singapore in 2013," said Tanaka.

5 things to know about Lenskart’s acquisition of Owndays:

1. The acquisition deal is reportedly around $400 million. 
2. The deal will help Lenskart to reach 13 markets in Asia. Owndays currently has around 460 stores in the region.
3. These markets include  India, Singapore, Thailand, Taiwan, Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia and Japan. 
4. Tanaka and Umiyama will continue to be shareholders and lead the management team, which will continue to operate as a separate brand.
5. The current major shareholders L Catterton, Mitsui and Principal Investments will exit their positions to Lenskart.

Lenskart with its 300 people engineering team, estimated to scale up to 500 people in FY23, will help build a stronger online and Omni experience for Owndays. The company said it will continue its rapid expansion in India and South East Asia to serve the mass to mid-premium segments while Owndays scales swiftly to cater to premium segments.

Founded in 2010, Lenskart ships over 10 million pairs of eyewear every year and has over 20 million app downloads, 300 home eye test representatives as well as over 1,100 stores across India, Singapore, and Dubai.

The company is backed by Falcon Edge Capital, SoftBank, KKR, Temasek, Premji Invest and Kedaara Capital, among others. 

-- With IANS Inputs,