Early investor gifts Lenskart’s first term sheet; had acquired 40% stake for $4 million

Marking a nostalgic moment in the eyewear brand’s journey, one of Lenskart’s earliest backers, Chiratae Ventures’ cofounder TCM Sundaram, presented CEO Peyush Bansal with a framed copy of the company’s first term sheet.

A term sheet is a non-binding document that outlines the key terms of a business deal, usually an investment, acquisition, or loan.

Back in 2011, Lenskart Solutions (then called Valyoo Technologies) had raised $4 million in its first funding round from Chiratae Ventures (formerly IDG Ventures India), giving the investor a 40% stake in the startup.


On Monday, Lenskart’s shares debuted on the stock market at a slight discount to the issue price of Rs 402 per share. The stock opened at Rs 390 on the BSE (down 3%) and Rs 395 on the NSE (down 1.7%).

At the time of listing, its market value stood at Rs 68,527 crore on the NSE. Soon after, it crossed $8 billion and stood at around Rs 71,329. It closed at Rs 70,184.1, or around $7.9 billion.

In July, Bansal bought 2.5% stake in Lenskart for Rs 222 crore, purchasing stock from investors including Chiratae Ventures, SoftBank, Kedaara Capital, TR Capital, Temasek, and Premji Invest. These secondary transactions, involving 42.7 million shares at Rs 52 each, valued the company at around Rs 8,700 crore (approximately $1 billion) at the time.

As ET reported in October, Bansal is expected to earn around Rs 824 crore by selling shares in the IPO’s offer for sale (OFS). His sister and cofounder Neha Bansal will make about Rs 41 crore from the same, after already selling Rs 90 crore worth of shares in a pre-IPO secondary deal to Shrikanta R Damani, wife of Dmart promoter Radhakishan Damani.

The other two cofounders, Amit Chaudhary and Sumeet Kapahi, are each expected to gain Rs 115 crore from their share sale.

Following the IPO, the four founders will together hold nearly 18% of the company, worth around Rs 12,000 – 13,000 crore.