Lenskart Acquires Majority Stake In Japanese Eyewear Brand Owndays, Becomes Asia’s Largest Omnichannel Retailer

The deal will take it to 13 markets, including India, Singapore, Thailand, Taiwan, Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Japan

SoftBank-backed Indian eyewear retailer Lenskart has acquired majority stake in Japanese eyewear brand Owndays, according to news reports. The acquisition will make the company one of the largest players in Asia’s online eyewear segment

The deal will take it to 13 markets, including India, Singapore, Thailand, Taiwan, Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Japan.

Though Lenskart didn’t disclose details of the deal, it has been reported that the value of the deal was about $400 million.

The current major shareholders of the Japanese retailer including L Catterton Asia and Mitsui & Co., Principal Investment will exit. The company said that Owndays’ Co-founders, CEO Shuji Tanaka, and COO Take Umiyama will continue to be shareholders and lead the management team, while the brand will continue operating independently.

According to news reports, Peyush Bansal, co-founder, and Group CEO, Lenskart, said, “With Owndays we move a step closer to democratizing eyewear. I have known Shuji-san and Take-san for over five years and have been an admirer of the disruptive brand and customer experience they have built with OWNDAYS. To bring about a revolutionary change such as the one the world needs in eyewear, we need to work with like-minded and complementary founders.”

Owndays Founder and CEO Shuji Tanaka said, “I believe digital transformation is the key to our next phase of growth in the post-pandemic operating environment, and I am excited to partner with Lenskart, which has deep expertise and intellectual capital in the information technology field. We envision that the combination of Owndays and Lenskart will bring about an abundance of innovation that will further revolutionise the eyewear industry to the benefit of people across the world.”

Lenkskart, which employs 300 people in its engineering team, aims to scale it up to 500 in FY23. It has also been investing in deeper supply chain integration and automation that will now be leveraged by both the brands to further enhance customer proposition and unit economics.

Owndays, headquartered in Tokyo, was set up in 1989. It opened its first overseas stores in 2013. Currently, Owndays operates 460 stores in a dozen countries besides Japan.