The Company is promoted by 4 co-founders: Peyush Bansal, Amit Chaudhary, Neha Bansal and Sumeet Kapahi.

The Company’s investors also include leading private equity and venture capital investors such as TPG Growth, IDG Ventures, Unilazer Ventures and TR Capital.

IFC proposes to invest equity of up to US$25 million as part of the Company’s ongoing fundraise round, with additional capital being provided by existing and new investors.

The Company will use IFC’s funding for expanding product distribution through its network of independent franchisee partners across India including into Tier 2/3 cities. IFC’s funding will also be used for setting up a state-of-the-art manufacturing, processing and assembly facility with features like robotic manufacturing, cutting and fitting of prescription lenses for eyeglasses with the capacity to process more than 20,000 pairs of eyeglasses daily by FY21.

25.87 million (USD)

Product Line	IFC Investment (million USD)
Risk Management
Guarantee
Loan
Equity	25.87

* These investment figures are indicative

Lenskart is based in Delhi and through its independent franchisee partners sells and delivers across 531 cities, including 148 cities in India’s low income states of Bihar, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa and Rajasthan.

The proposed investment is closely aligned to the World Bank Group''s strategy for private sector health care in India. Healthcare is one of the most basic human needs and is fundamental to the well-being and socio-economic development of any society. However, access to basic healthcare remains deficient, if not absent, for many in developing countries including India. To address this issue, public spending on healthcare has increased in many countries, but supply has not kept pace with the demand, which is driven by a growing and aging population. Consequently, the private sector is playing a significant and expanding role in providing healthcare services in developing economies as witnessed in India The World Bank Group seeks to engage the private sector to increase and improve access to affordable, quality health services, particularly in underserved geographies such as low-income states and Tier 2/3 cities, while reducing the burden of out of pocket health care expenditures.

-Affordable access to eyewear products in underserved geographies: With this fundraise, the Company intends to expand its distribution via franchisee partners to more than 100 Tier 2/3 cities in India.

-Increase in consumers reached: The Company''s eyewear products reached 600,000 consumers in the year FY15 and this number is expected to increase to more than 5 million by FY21, supported by the expansion undertaken as part of this project.

-Employment opportunities: Continued business expansion through this Project is expected to create additional jobs, both directly and indirectly, in the sourcing, processing, supply chain, and distribution. The Company has over 300 staff members involved in its direct operations, in addition to over 1,100 througha broader network of 90 franchisee partners, and it is scaling both members rapidly. It intends to keep growing its business to distribute its products through more than 400 franchisee stores and 800 home eye checkup teams by FY21, creating employment for over 2,000 people.

-Skill development and manpower training: Lenskart plays a significant role in skill development in three major areas (i) training people to operate complex machinery that Lenskart procures to manufacture lenses (ii) training a growing number of vision technicians and optometrists for home eye care examinations and (iii) helping their franchisees recruit and train staff needed for their operations.The Company has worked in collaboration with Skill Tree, an authorized skill development partner appointed by the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC), to develop a Refraction Training Program to help train optometrists. Skill Tree identifies individuals who are then trained through a six month program run in collaboration with Lenskart. People graduating from this program are assessed, certified and given employment through the Company''s ecosystem of franchise and home eye checkup partners.

-Promoting Diversity: Of the 1100+ staff currently employed by the Company and its franchise partners, over 15% are women. Nearly 2% of the employees in their manufacturing operations are specially-abled. The Company trains and improves their skill set, and builds a career path for them by offering senior staff supervisory roles and a chance to grow as professionals.

-Better quality and lower prices: The Company will provide quality products at affordable prices. Currently, the market is fragmented and small stores use manual or semi-automatic machines, leading to errors in the eyeglasses which are finally given to customers. The Company largely uses fully-automated machines which are much more accurate and economical.

-Global knowledge sharing: IFC will be able to share its extensive global experience in the healthcare and manufacturing sectors with the Company, particularly in supply chain development and capacity building. IFC will share its significant industry knowledge and expertise gained from its previous healthcare investments across various emerging markets, including eye care chains located in India (EyeQ), China (Aier), Egypt (Magrabi) and Mexico (Sala Uno).

-Assisting with key industry relationships: The Company is keen to engage with IFC''s large global healthcare portfolio where Lenskart''s offerings can be mutually beneficial to helping customers access quality and affordable eyewear.

-Enabling regional growth: The Company could further expand its operations into South and East Asia and other emerging markets once it achieves scale in India. It would benefit from the assistance that IFC country offices in these regions can provide in entering new geographies.

-Long term investor: The Company values IFC''s suite of financial products and ability to continue to support future funding needs, as it continues to grow. The Company also operates automated finishing and assembly machines and IFC or its financial services portfolio clients can help them with equipment purchase, working capital and debt funding.

-Best practices: IFC will provide inputs on Environmental and Social best practices (including Life and Fire safety) and on Corporate Governance. Through the adoption of the Performance Standards, IFC will enable the Company to further improve its environmental, social and operating standards.

Key E&S risks and issues related to this Category B Project include: adequate social and environmental assessment of the project impacts; the company’s capacity and systems to manage social, environmental, health and safety aspects of its existing and proposed operations in compliance with legal requirements as well as IFC Performance Standards (PSs) and the World Bank Group (WBG) Environment, Health and Safety (EHS) Guidelines; assurance of fair, safe and healthy working conditions during both construction and operation; management of wastes, emissions and effluents; life and fire safety (L&FS) and emergency response for the company’s facilities.

Please refer to the related Environmental and Social Review Summary (ESRS) document for this project.

Please refer to the Environmental and Social Action Plan (ESAP) tab in the related Environmental and Social Review Summary (ESRS) document for this project.