Lenskart IPO Could Make Peyush Bansal A Billionaire: What We Know About His Net Worth

Peyush Bansal created a market disruption 15 years ago when he launched Lenskart with partners he met on LinkedIn, growing his eyewear business into a multi-billion dollar startup over the years. Now he is in line to enter the billionaire club with the upcoming Lenskart IPO (initial public offering). Lenskart plans to debut on the stock market as early as November, according to Bloomberg citing people in the know, with a valuation of $9 billion at the time of its listing on Dalal Street based on the IPO size. That would give the entrepreneur a stake of nearly $800 million after selling a small portion of his shares in the IPO, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Peyush Bansal’s stake could cross $1 billion if Lenskart shares rise around 25 percent on debut. Peyush Bansal’s road to the Lenskart IPO shows how investor confidence is returning for some founder-led ventures after a period where the country’s top startups struggled to survive and funding dried up. Lenskart has carved out a niche with robotic manufacturing in India, using machines imported from Germany to manufacture its glasses, along with a website that makes it easy for customers to order and test their purchases remotely. Starting with a large domestic market, Lenskart is already expanding across Southeast Asia where Bansal notes demand patterns in Indonesia and Vietnam mirror India’s trajectory a decade ago. “India is the myopia capital of the world, and many of our people need glasses,” Bansal said in an interview in Mumbai. “If we can solve that, everything else, including scale, profit and rising market cap, will follow.” Bansal’s position is that he stands apart from earlier Indian consumer tech listings and is already making money. The Gurugram-based company, which designs, manufactures and sells eyewear online and through retail stores, reported its first ever full-year profit in the year to March 31. Shark Tank He also has the wind of an established retail fans behind him. Apart from Lenskart, Bansal is a judge on the Indian franchise of the US show Shark Tank and has amassed over 9,00,000 followers on Instagram. In business, he says he has benefited from timing and persistence. Banal jokes that he and co-founder Amit Chaudhary spend one day each week brainstorming new ideas, with mixed results. “Our hit rate is about 50%,” he said. “A coin toss might have worked just as well.” This year, he faces a stock debut buffeted by trade wars and geopolitical headwinds, in addition to more cautious investors. While India’s startup scene is one of the world’s largest, valuations have come under fire for several companies that have struggled to grow and as investors ask tougher questions. The family office of tech billionaire Narayana Murthy recently pointed to steep discounts driven by funds exiting their investments. Oyo Hotels, which like Lenskart is also owned by SoftBank Group Corp. backed was once one of India’s most valued startups, valued at $10 billion in 2019 before its valuation plummeted and later recovered. Peyush Bansal’s approach has drawn support from investors who prefer patience over flash. SoftBank, which owns about 15% of the company, has described its stake in Lenskart as an example of patient capital that can wait decades for compound growth. Earlier this year, investor Fidelity Management & Research valued Lenskart at $6.1 billion. The Lenskart IPO will test whether the recovery in investor appetite for Indian consumer technology stocks has staying power. Urban Co. ‘s splashy debut last month, which saw shares of the rent-a-service market soar 62% on its opening day, reignited optimism after a series of disappointing post-market performances from other startups cooled enthusiasm for the sector. Still, Lenskart remains dependent on China for more than one-third of its purchases, including frames, molds and raw materials, a reliance Bansal acknowledges but describes as manageable. Such reliance leaves the firm exposed to China’s supply chain swings, where tariffs or export limits can hit deliveries and erode margins. Now Peyush Bansal oversees the production of a new manufacturing facility in Hyderabad, which is expected to be the world’s largest, covering 50 hectares with a production capacity of hundreds of thousands of glasses daily. First Ventures Bansal, an engineering graduate from McGill University in Montreal, began his career at Microsoft Corp. in Redmond, Washington, before returning to India to pursue entrepreneurship. His first venture, a student housing platform, gave way to a broader mission after recognizing a much larger gap in vision care. From a small office in Faridabad, on the outskirts of Delhi, he and three partners he met on LinkedIn started building Lenskart. The company now controls almost every link in its value chain, from lens design and manufacturing to last-mile delivery. It employs hundreds of ophthalmologists in Kolkata who provide remote eye consultations and is developing AI-based testing tools to reach smaller cities where access to eye care remains limited. Lenskart plans to use the proceeds from the share sale to open new stores across India, invest in technology and artificial intelligence capabilities, make acquisitions and fund general corporate purposes, according to filings. As of March, it operated 2,723 stores – across India and in markets such as the Middle East and Southeast Asia. Almost 40% of its revenue now comes from outside India, underscoring its growing international footprint. His next big bet is smart glasses. A 70-member team is working on integrating features like UPI, AI tools, cameras and headphones. “It’s tempting to go all in,” Bansal said. “But timing matters.”