Economic Times
 
Eyewear retailer Lenskart on Friday said that it has invested in Ajna Lens, a Mumbai-based deeptech company building artificial intelligence (AI)-powered XR glasses.
 
The move is aimed at developing smart glasses. Lenskart, however, did not disclose the investment amount.
 
The Gurugram-based company said in a press release that it plans to leverage its expertise in frame design and engineering to create smart glasses.
 
Founded in 2014, Ajna Lens is developing immersive technologies driven by spatial computing, AI vision, and an XR stack.
 
Commenting on the investment, Peyush Bansal, cofounder and chief executive of Lenskart, said, “This investment marks the next chapter in our Smart Glass journey, which began with the launch of Phonic, our audio glasses, in December 2024.” He noted that the smart glasses category is scaling up rapidly, presenting an opportunity for product innovation in this space.
 
This comes at a time when Lenskart is looking to list on the stock exchanges. On June 6, the company converted itself into a public limited company as part of preparations for an initial public offering.
 
Lenskart is considering a $1 billion IPO at a potential valuation of $10 billion, which is double that of its last funding round.
 
The SoftBank-backed company closed a $200 million secondary round in June last year at a $5 billion valuation, with investments from Singapore sovereign fund Temasek and US financial services giant Fidelity. A month later, founders Bansal, Neha Bansal, Amit Choudhary and Sumeet Kapahi invested almost $20 million in the company.
 
The company produces 25 million frames and 30-40 million lenses annually. It operates more than 2,500 stores in India and Southeast Asia and has a strong online presence.