Meet The Entrepreneur Whose Vision Of Helping Indians See Better Made Him A Billionaire

Aug 18, 2026 09:38 AM - 2 hours ago 1

Peyush Bansal, the cofounder of eyewear retailer Lenskart Solutions, is the latest Indian to subordinate the three-comma club. Shares of SoftBank-backed Lenskart, which went nationalist 9 months ago, deed an all-time precocious of astir 627 rupees connected the National Stock Exchange past week. Bansal’s adjacent to 9% liking successful the $11 cardinal marketplace headdress institution positive the proceeds of shares he sold successful the IPO, springiness him an estimated nett worthy of $1 billion.

The banal jumped aft the institution reported a four-fold emergence successful nett profit to 2.28 cardinal rupees ($24 million) for the 4th ended June 30 amid surging income successful some home and overseas markets. Headquartered successful the bluish Indian metropolis of Faridabad, Lenskart sells everything from glasses to sunglasses to eyewear accessories some online and done a web of stores.

It has a beingness successful 16 countries including Singapore, Japan and the UAE, isolated from India wherever it has 2,725 stores crossed 157 cities. It added 132 stores successful the latest quarter, of which 116 were successful India and 16 overseas taking the company’s full shop count to 3,459 stores.

Bansal, 42, started the business successful 2010 pinch his sister Neha, who heads merchandising and 2 different cofounders, Amit Chaudhari, the sourcing main and Sumeet Kapahi, who oversees the shop network. The institution sewage going initially arsenic an online retailer offering customers a 3D characteristic to effort connected the glasses virtually. It later expanded offline opening its first shop successful New Delhi successful 2013.

“Buying spectacles is not an easy decision,” says Arvind Singhal, president of Gurgaon-based unit consultancy, The Knowledge Company. “You want the sentiment of a family personnel aliases a friend and you want to look astatine a wide assortment. It is bully that Lenskart corrected people and opened beingness stores.”

Bansal took the institution nationalist successful November 2025, raising $821 cardinal successful an IPO that was oversubscribed 28 times. However, the banal listed astatine a 3% discount to its rumor price.

SoftBank first invested successful Lenskart successful December 2019, starring a $275 cardinal backing information that made Lenskart a unicorn. The Japanese investor sold a mini liking during the IPO but offloaded a bigger 3.25% liking for $300 cardinal successful June aft the mandatory six-month lock-in play had ended. It still remains the largest shareholder pinch a astir 10% stake. Other marquee investors see Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, backstage equity elephantine KKR and TPG.

Bansal, who has an undergrad grade successful electrical engineering from Canada’s McGill University, started his profession pinch Microsoft successful Redmond wherever he worked arsenic a programme head for its MS Office product. He discontinue wrong a twelvemonth to move backmost to India successful 2007 and started Valyoo Technologies a twelvemonth later. It operated a website called searchmycampus.com aimed astatine helping students find field housing.

Reading an article astir really India was an underserved marketplace successful eyecare and eyewear, gave him caller direction: organized eyewear retailing was a ripe opportunity arsenic the marketplace was dominated by scores of mini opticians crossed the country. He worked astatine 1 specified shop successful Delhi to get a amended knowing of the business earlier he took the plunge.

An October 2025 study by Mumbai finance patient ICICI Direct pegs the size of the Indian eyewear marketplace astatine $9.2 cardinal successful fiscal 2025 and projects it will grow to $17.2 cardinal successful fiscal 2030. Prescription glasses relationship for 75% of income pinch sunglasses contributing $2 cardinal aliases conscionable complete a 5th and interaction lenses the remainder. Sales of sunglasses is expected to astir double to $4 cardinal by fiscal 2030 while the interaction lenses conception is expected to grow to $730 cardinal from $ 480 cardinal complete the aforesaid period.

Lenskart’s main rival is Titan Eye + , the eyewear section of Titan Company, portion of the Tata conglomerate but its gross of 9.16 cardinal rupees for fiscal 2026 and shop count of little than 1,000 are some good down Lenskart. Other bequest retailers specified arsenic Kolkata-based Himalaya Opticals and Delhi-based Bonton Opticians compete successful the luxury and premium niche.

Analysts opportunity that the eyewear marketplace has capable room for each players. ICICI Direct estimates that arsenic of 2020, 43% of the country’s organization had anemic eyes and by 2030, astir two-thirds of Indians will request eyeglasses.

Foreseeing this trend, Bansal has been ramping up Lenskart’s ceramic and mortar presence. The shop count crossed 1,000 successful 2022 and 2,000 successful 2025. The overseas description started disconnected pinch opening a shop successful Singapore successful 2019, which has since grown to 65 stores. Lenskart entered the UAE pinch a shop successful Dubai successful 2022 and Saudi Arabia successful 2023.

In June 2022, Bansal formed his regard connected a further sky by acquiring a mostly liking successful Japanese eyewear marque Ownday for $400 million. Ownday now has 669 stores from 460 stores erstwhile Lenskart acquired it.

For the twelvemonth ended March 31 Lenskart’s nett profit jumped 148% to 5.3 cardinal rupees connected gross that was up astir a 3rd to 90 cardinal rupees. Analysts opportunity the institution is reaping the benefits of standard and backward integration. It makes lenses astatine a mill successful Rajasthan authorities and has a associated task for manufacturing frames astatine a Chinese mill successful Zhengzhou. The institution is building a a caller mill connected a 50-acre tract successful the confederate India metropolis of Hyderabad pinch the capacity to nutrient 50 cardinal pairs per year,

“Lenskart’s business exemplary is 1 of a kind,” says Singhal. “Even Titan has not been capable to do what the institution has done successful position of the standard of manufacturing and the scope that they offer.”

That said, challenges dishonesty ahead. “Lenskart’s expertise to prolong its maturation and profitability will dangle connected its resilience crossed 4 captious fronts - securing unchangeable and cost-effective earthy worldly supplies, maintaining uninterrupted manufacturing operations, attracting and retaining skilled vision-care talent, and navigating intensifying world title successful the eyewear industry,” says Amarjeet Maurya, lawman vice president for basal investigation astatine Mumbai-based Kotak Securities.

Bansal, who refused to remark erstwhile contacted, has outlined his imagination for Lenskart successful the company’s latest quarterly presentation. “We group retired to waste eyeglasses,” he noted. “It was ever a dream—to alteration really a cardinal group spot and acquisition the world…Few companies get to effort this. It is still Day Zero.”