Lenskart shares recovered after a soft start to finish slightly above the offer price on Monday. This followed the Indian eyewear retailer’s initial public offering, which raised 72.8 billion rupees, or 821 million dollars. The IPO sold out within hours but also stirred debate over the company’s valuation.
The stock opened at 395 rupees, below the IPO price of 402 rupees. It fell as much as 11 percent to 356.10 rupees during the session before recovering to close at 404.55 rupees. This closing price valued Lenskart at approximately 702 billion rupees, or around 8 billion dollars. The IPO was heavily oversubscribed, with bids coming in at about 28 times the shares available. This demand was led primarily by institutional investors.
Lenskart’s pitch to investors highlights its vertically integrated model, where it controls everything from manufacturing to retail stores. The company believes this approach can help it outpace legacy optical chains and online rivals. However, the 15-year-old company faces competition across price points from Titan Eye+ to new direct-to-consumer players. This raises questions about how quickly it can scale profitably in India and overseas.
The company reported a profit in the fiscal year that ended in March. Revenue rose 23 percent year-over-year to 66.53 billion rupees, about 750 million dollars. Net profit was 2.97 billion rupees, around 33 million dollars. This figure was boosted by a 1.67 billion rupee accounting gain linked to its acquisition of Owndays. This was not an actual cash gain. Excluding that one-time item, the company’s core profit stood at 1.30 billion rupees, or roughly 15 million dollars.
The company had sought a valuation of 700 billion rupees, around 7.9 billion dollars, at the top end of the IPO price range. This places it among the most richly valued of India’s new-age consumer brands, alongside firms such as Honasa and BlueStone. The valuation represents a more than 60 percent jump from the roughly 5 billion dollar level at which Lenskart shares traded in a secondary sale last June involving backers Fidelity and Temasek. Fidelity later marked up Lenskart’s valuation by 12 percent to 5.6 billion dollars in November last year.
The proposed valuation implied about 230 times Lenskart’s core net profit and roughly 10 times its revenue. This has fueled debate among retail investors and on social media. DSP Asset Managers, which invested in the company ahead of the listing, defended the valuation. Despite acknowledging it was expensive, the firm stated the business remains strong and scalable.
Chief Executive Peyush Bansal, who has gained wider public recognition as a judge on Shark Tank India, said the issue was fairly priced. He cited feedback from institutional investors. He stated that they did not build Lenskart to reach a valuation, but to reach people from Delhi to the smallest towns of India.
Lenskart plans to use the IPO proceeds to support expansion. This includes opening new stores and strengthening its supply chain and retail infrastructure. The company also intends to invest in technology and marketing. A portion of the funds may be set aside for acquisitions and other general corporate purposes.
Existing investors including SoftBank, Schroders Capital, Premji Invest, Kedaara Capital, and Alpha Wave Ventures sold shares in the IPO. Co-founders Peyush and Nehal Bansal, Amit Chaudhary, and Sumeet Kapahi also sold a portion of their holdings.
Lenskart’s listing comes at a time when several Indian startups are moving toward public markets. This trend is driven by tightening late-stage venture funding and increasing domestic investor appetite. Fintech firms Groww and Pine Labs, edtech platform PhysicsWallah, SaaS provider Capillary Technologies, and consumer brand BoAt are among the startups preparing for their own IPOs in India.