Budget eyewear brand ClearDekho secures pre-Series A fund led by Venture Catalysts

Budget eyewear brand ClearDekho has raised Rs 2 crore in its pre-Series A round from incubation platform Venture Catalysts. Prominent investors such as Samyakth Capital, Windrose Capital, Krishnan Akhileswaran of Apollo Hospitals, and Yogesh Chaudhary also participated in the funding round.

With the fresh funding, the startup will scale up its market footprint, increase the team size and strengthen back-end operations. Besides, the startup also plans to expand its product portfolio and launch private label brands in the budget category, reveals the press statement.

Floated by Shivi Singh and Saurabh Dayal, ClearDekho is a budget eyewear brand as well as an optical retail chain startup that provides standardised and highly-affordable optical solutions via an omnichannel model.

The company claims to transform unorganised eyewear retail outlets into ClearDekho branded stores and has opened 25 stores in Delhi, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Rajasthan.

ClearDekho also claims to serve more than 50,000 customers within six months of operations.

The company which operates through asset-light franchise business model plans to launch 100 stores before December 2018 and 500 ClearDekho stores operational across India within the next 2 years.

Also Read: Optical retail chain startup Specsmakers secures $10 Mn from Eight Roads Ventures, others

According to an ASSOCHAM research, the eyewear market in India is growing at a CAGR of 30 per cent and is currently expected to be worth Rs 43,000 crore. With a very few branded optical retail stores available in the country, ClearDekho looks to tap the unorganised optical retail market.

One of the top eyewear brands Lenskart has been leading this space with investments and acquisitions. With over $100 million in its kitty from investors including Ratan Tata and Kris Gopalakrishnan, the Delhi-based company recently revealed its plan to invest about $2-3 million in products or technologies-based startups that can help provide affordable eye care solutions.

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