Peyush Bansal: The Visionary Behind Lenskart’s Billion-Dollar Eye Care Revolution

Peyush Bansal, cofounder and CEO of Lenskart Solutions.

© 2025 Bloomberg Finance LP

Peyush Bansal, cofounder and CEO of Lenskart Solutions, has become the latest Indian entrepreneur to join the “three-comma club,” with his stake in the company contributing to an estimated net worth of $1 billion. Shares of SoftBank-backed Lenskart, which went public in November 2025, surged to a record high of 627 rupees on the National Stock Exchange after the company reported a fourfold increase in net profit to 2.28 billion rupees ($24 million) for the quarter ending June 30. This growth was driven by rising sales in both domestic and overseas markets.

Headquartered in Faridabad, Haryana, Lenskart operates as an online and offline eyewear retailer, offering glasses, sunglasses, and accessories. The company now has 3,459 stores across 157 cities in India and expanded into 16 countries, including Singapore, Japan, and the UAE. In the latest quarter, it added 132 stores, with 116 in India and 16 abroad.

Bansal established the company in 2010 alongside his sister Neha, Amit Chaudhari, and Sumeet Kapahi. Initially an online retailer leveraging 3D virtual try-on technology, Lenskart later launched physical stores, beginning with its first location in New Delhi in 2013. Arvind Singhal, chairman of The Knowledge Company, noted that the proliferation of physical stores enhanced customer trust in the brand.

Bansal took Lenskart public in November 2025, raising $821 million in an IPO that was oversubscribed 28 times. While the stock listed at a 3% discount, he retained a significant stake. SoftBank, which initially invested $275 million in December 2019, became a major backer and later sold a portion of its holdings during the IPO. Despite this, SoftBank remains the largest shareholder with a 10% stake. Other key investors include the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, KKR, and TPG.

Bansal, 42, holds an undergraduate degree in electrical engineering from Canada’s McGill University. Prior to founding Lenskart, he worked briefly at Microsoft in Redmond before returning to India in 2007 to launch Valyoo Technologies, which facilitated student housing searches. Inspired by an article highlighting India’s underserved eye care market, he identified a gap in organized retail and spent time working at a Delhi optician to understand the industry before launching Lenskart.

According to ICICI Direct, India’s eyewear market is valued at $9.2 billion in fiscal 2025 and projected to reach $17.2 billion by 2030. Prescription glasses dominate sales at 75%, followed by sunglasses ($2 billion) and contact lenses. Sunglasses sales are expected to double to $4 billion by 2030, while contact lens sales will grow to $730 million.

Lenskart competes with Titan Eye+, the eyewear division of Titan Company, which reported revenue of 9.16 billion rupees for fiscal 2026, but has far fewer stores. Other competitors include Himalaya Opticals and Bonton Opticians, though they cater to niche luxury segments. Analysts suggest the market has ample room for multiple players, with ICICI Direct estimating that 43% of Indians had weak eyes in 2020, a figure expected to rise to two-thirds by 2030.

Anticipating this demand, Bansal has aggressively expanded Lenskart’s physical footprint, with store counts crossing 1,000 in 2022 and 2,000 in 2025. Overseas operations began in Singapore in 2019, with 65 stores today, and expanded to the UAE in 2022 and Saudi Arabia in 2023. In 2022, Bansal acquired Japanese eyewear brand Ownday for $400 million, increasing its store count from 460 to 669.

For the year ending March 31, Lenskart’s net profit surged 148% to 5.3 billion rupees, with revenue rising nearly 33% to 90 billion rupees. Analysts attribute this growth to scale and vertical integration, including lens manufacturing in Rajasthan and frame production via a joint venture in Zhengzhou, China. The company is constructing a 50-acre factory in Hyderabad capable of producing 50 million pairs annually.

“Lenskart’s business model is unique,” said Singhal. “Even Titan has not achieved this scale or range.” However, challenges remain, including securing cost-effective raw materials, maintaining manufacturing efficiency, attracting talent, and navigating global competition. Amarjeet Maurya of Kotak Securities highlighted these four critical areas as key to sustaining growth.

In his 2025 quarterly presentation, Bansal reiterated his vision: “We set out to sell eyeglasses… It was always a dream—to change how a billion people see and experience the world… Few companies get to attempt this. It is still Day Zero.”

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