$25M to be injected in Lenskart; 1,000 franchise stores on the cards

Online eyewear retailer, Lenskart is on a roll. The company that aims to become profitable by 2017 is brimming with confidence, courtesy the fresh flow of funds.

Lenskart is looking to raise $25 million (Rs 170 crore) from International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group and one of the largest global development institutions.

Ambitious expansions plans of Lenskart

The financial institution revealed that the eyewear etailer will use the $25 million for:

• Expanding product distribution through franchisee partners across India including into tier 2, 3 cities

• Setting up a manufacturing, processing and assembly facility

• Robotic manufacturing of lenses

• Cutting and fitting of prescription lenses for eyeglasses

• Increasing manufacturing capacity to produce more than 20,000 pairs of eyeglasses daily by FY 2022

Franchise model to play a key role

While on the online front, Lenskart doesn’t have much competition, it’s a different story on the offline front. It not only competes with small local stores but also with established brands such as The Titan Company and Reliance Retail that has 1,266 and 3,000 stores, respectively.

Therefore, the etailer has made it clear that it will rely on omni-channel retail to stay on top. Lenskart plans to open 1,000 brick-and mortar stores via franchise model to increase its offline presence. Processing orders, logistics, delivery, payments, returns and other online supplementary services will all be taken care by the franchise owners.

Why franchise stores?

• They will expand the network of stores

• The company won’t have to spend on setting up the outlets

Lenskart’s CEO Peyush Bansal believes that this strategy will help it to remain asset light, while expanding simultaneously.