Lenskart shares recovered after a soft start to finish slightly above the offer price on Monday, following the Indian eyewear retailer’s ₹72.8 billion ($821 million) IPO that sold out within hours but stirred debate over its valuation.
The stock opened at ₹395, below the IPO price of ₹402, and fell as much as 11% to ₹356.10 during the session before recovering to close at ₹404.55. The closing price valued Lenskart at about ₹702 billion (around $8 billion). The IPO was heavily oversubscribed with bids coming in at about 28 times the shares available, led primarily by institutional investors.
Lenskart’s pitch to investors is that its vertically integrated model — where it controls everything from manufacturing to retail stores — can outpace legacy optical chains and online rivals. But the 15-year-old company faces competition across price points from Titan Eye+ to new direct-to-consumer players, raising questions about how quickly it can scale profitably in India and overseas.