World Bank's investment arm to buy stake in Lenskart

International Finance Corporation (IFC), the investment arm of World Bank, is planning to invest about $25 million or Rs 170 crore in online eyewear retailer Lenskart Solutions, as part of its efforts to expand portfolio in investments in online retailing firms.

IFC's investment forms a part of new funds, estimated to be worth $50 million or Rs 340 crore, being raised by Lenskart.

Recently, IFC bought stake worth $25 million in online grocery retailer BigBasket, The Economic Times reports.

The Delhi-based Lenskart is also in talks with other investors in the current round of funding. However, the valuation of the firm is yet to be known.

In November last year, Lenskart raised Rs 60 crore from private equity firm TPG Growth, which was already an investor in the company. The deal valued Lenskart at Rs 1,000 crore, according to filings with Registrar of Companies (RoC).

The company's valuation stood at Rs 135 crore in December 2014, when it raised nearly Rs 634 crore from TPG Growth and TR Capital.

Last week, Peyush Bansal, co-founder and CEO of Lenskart, said that the company was planning to open 1,000 brick-and-mortar shops via the franchise model.

Currently, the company has 90 franchisees in over 50 cities. Amit Chaudhary, Neha Bansal and Sumeet Kapahi are the other co-founders of the company.

Last month, Assocham had said that the domestic e-commerce market is estimated to grow by 67 percent to $38 billion (Rs 2.51 lakh crore) in 2016 from over $23 billion (Rs 1.52 lakh crore) last year, boosted by a rise in Internet and mobile users.

India's e-commerce market was worth about $3.8 billion in 2009 and it increased to $17 billion in 2014 and to $23 billion in 2015.