Lenskart shares recovered after a soft start and closed slightly above their offering price on Monday after the Indian eyewear retailer’s 72.8 billion rupee ($821 million) IPO sold out within hours but sparked debate over its valuation.
The stock price opened at Rs 395, below the public offering price of Rs 402, and fell as much as 11 per cent to Rs 356.10 during the session before recovering to close at Rs 404.55. At the closing price, Lenskart was valued at about 702 billion rupees (about $8 billion). The IPO was significantly oversubscribed, with bids roughly 28 times the public offering, led primarily by institutional investors.
Lenskart’s pitch to investors is that its vertically integrated model (controlling everything from manufacturing to retail stores) allows it to outperform traditional eyewear chains and online rivals. But the 15-year-old company faces competition across price points, from Titan Eye+ to new direct-to-consumer players, raising questions about how quickly it can profitably expand in India and abroad.
The company reported a profit in fiscal 2025 (ending March), with sales of 66.53 billion rupees (approximately $750 million), up 23% year-on-year. Net profit was 2.97 billion rupees (about $33 million), boosted by an accounting gain (not cash) of 1.67 billion rupees (about $19 million) from the OWNDAYS acquisition. Excluding this one-time item, the company’s core profit was 1.3 billion pounds, or approximately $15 million.
The company is targeting a valuation of 700 billion rupees (approximately $7.9 billion), at the high end of its IPO price range, making it one of the highest valuations among new-age consumer brands in India, along with the likes of Honasa and BlueStone. The valuation represents an increase of more than 60% from the roughly $5 billion level at which Lenskart shares traded in a secondary share sale last June involving late backers Fidelity and Temasek. Fidelity then raised Lenskart’s valuation by 12% to $5.6 billion in November last year.
The proposed valuation, which suggests around 230 times Lenskart’s core net income and 10 times sales, has fueled debate among retail investors and on social media. In a post responding to criticism, DSP Asset Managers, which invested in the company prior to its listing, defended the deal’s valuation, saying the business remained “strong and scalable” and acknowledged it was “overvalued.”
Chief Executive Officer Peyush Bansal, who rose to prominence as a judge on Shark Tank India, said the issue was “fairly priced”, citing feedback from institutional investors.
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“We did not create Lenskart to achieve a valuation,” he said at the IPO ceremony in Mumbai. “We did this to reach people from Delhi to the smallest towns in India.”
Lenskart plans to use the proceeds to support its expansion, including opening new stores and strengthening its supply chain and retail infrastructure. The company also plans to invest in technology and marketing, and said some of the funds may be set aside for acquisitions and other general corporate purposes.
Existing investors including SoftBank, Schroders Capital, Premji Invest, Kedara Capital and Alpha Wave Ventures sold their stakes in the IPO. Co-founders Payush, Nehal Bansal, Amit Chaudhary and Sumeet Kapahi also sold some of their stakes.
Lenskart’s listing comes at a time when several Indian startups are moving to public markets as late-stage venture funding tightens and domestic investor appetite increases. Fintech companies Groww and Pine Labs, edtech platform PhysicsWallah, SaaS provider Capillary Technologies and consumer brand BoAt are among the startups preparing for IPOs in India.
