Mint
 
Bengaluru: Eyewear retailer Lenskart will double down on artificial intelligence (AI) and larger technology investments after seeing its profit after tax surge to ₹133 crore in the December quarter of FY26, a 237% jump from a year ago. Three core initiatives—AI-enabled self-eye-testing, its upcoming Hyderabad plant, and B smart glasses—will form the core of its long-term investments that are expected to “pay off over decades”.
 
The company had reported a ₹39 crore profit in the year-ago period.
 
“At Lenskart, we made this choice years ago—to be an AI-first company,” Peyush Bansal, chief executive officer, said in the letter to shareholders on Wednesday. “We understood that giving vision to a billion people would require technology that learns and improves with every interaction. This quarter, the results make that conviction particularly visible.”
 
The Gurugram-based company’s third-quarter revenue from operations rose 38% year-on-year to ₹2,307 crore. Total expenses surged to ₹2,126 crore from ₹1,690 crore a year ago, including a one-time cost of ₹5.3 crore related to its initial public offering.
 
“These are non-operational, one-off items that do not reflect the underlying performance of our business. We do not anticipate any similar exceptional items in the coming quarters,” the firm said.
 
Lenskart said the December quarter reflected strong momentum in the vision correction category, with growth coming from both higher sales at existing stores and deeper penetration within the same neighbourhoods.
 
Sales at existing stores rose 28%, while revenue from the same pin codes grew 36%, indicating expansion into new catchments alongside stronger demand in established ones. Eyewear units sold increased 31%, driven largely by new customer additions, it said.
 
The company conducted 5.5 million eye tests during the quarter, up 60% from a year ago, with 49% being first-time exams, suggesting it is expanding the market rather than taking share. Remote optometry-based eye exams surged 330%, helping Lenskart scale in tier-2 and smaller cities.
 
Its paid Gold membership programme continued to strengthen repeat purchases. In Q3, 37% of sales came from members acquired prior to the quarter. The company added 0.7 million net Gold members, taking the active base to 8.1 million, and collected ₹50.5 crore in subscription fees.
 
Average selling prices rose 7% as customers opted for premium products, with Owndays lenses contributing 38% of revenue, according to the company.
 
The firm is increasingly banking on premiumization to drive its next leg of growth and margin expansion. The share of progressive lenses, which typically carry higher margins, continued to rise in its revenue mix during the quarter, signalling a steady shift toward higher-value products, Bansal said.
 
“We are seeing improvement in progressive lens share in our revenue mix, which carries higher margins. Our premium Owndays lens brand has grown, and with the introduction of Meller and continued strength of John Jacobs, consumers have more opportunities to buy premium products with higher margins. We are also innovating technologically advanced lenses such as myopia progression lenses; as their share increases, margins will improve,” Bansal said in the earnings call on Wednesday.
 
“We have delivered 550 bps of improvement from FY23 to today, and we see a clear path to continued expansion as these initiatives mature,” the company noted.