Lenskart subsidiary Neso Brands raises $100 Mn in seed round

Neso Brands, a subsidiary of omnichannel eyewear brand Lenskart, has raised over $100 million in one of the largest seed rounds for any startup. Neso Brands' investors include KKR, Softbank, Alpha Wave Global and Temasek. However, the company did not divulge further details of the transaction.

The Singapore-based company said that it will partner and invest in consumer eyewear brands and grow those by leveraging synergies across the Lenskart Group.

Along with the fundraising, Neso Brands has also announced the appointment of Bjorn Bergstrom as the new CEO of the company. Before joining Neso, Bergstrom served as chief growth officer and interim chief product and technology Officer for Sweden-based fashion brand NA-KD.

The development has come at a time when Lenskart is all set to raise a large round. The company had already received $125 million across two tranches in its ongoing Series I round in April. As per Fintrackr’s estimates, the Peyush Bansal-led company is currently valued at $4.32 billion and looking to close the new round at a valuation of $5 billion.

Entrackr was the first to report these developments.

Earlier ET had reported that Lenskart registered a D2C venture under Neso Brands and was looking for external funds for the new subsidiary.

Lenskart currently serves over 10 million customers and has a presence in 235 cities in India and Singapore.  The company’s revenue stood at Rs 905.3 crore in FY21 as compared to Rs 900 crore in FY20, as per the company’s annual financial statements. Importantly, the company had managed to increase its annual profit by nearly 4.6X to Rs 28.92 crore from Rs 6.32 crore in FY20.

Neso Brands’ $100 million round is the largest seed round for any Indian-origin company. The list also includes e-commerce roll up company 10club, credit card payment company CRED, wealth management company INDmoney, digital insurance provider Acko and fintech startup Recur Club.