Latest news with #SecuritiesAndExchangeBoardOfIndia
Entrepreneur
7 hours ago
- Business
- Entrepreneur
Lenskart to File its DRHP with SEBI via Public Route
The Peyush Bansal-led startup has also taken clear steps towards going public by changing its name from Lenskart Solutions Private Limited to Lenskart Solutions Limited, following approval from its existing shareholders. You're reading Entrepreneur India, an international franchise of Entrepreneur Media. Lenskart, the omnichannel eyewear maker, is reportedly taking the public route to file its draft red herring prospectus (DRHP), according to a report by MoneyControl. It was earlier speculated that the company might take the confidential route that does not reveal all the details related to the listing. The Peyush Bansal-led startup has also taken clear steps towards going public by changing its name from Lenskart Solutions Private Limited to Lenskart Solutions Limited, following approval from its existing shareholders. According to the report, Lenskart is planning to file DRHP with the market regulator, Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), in the first half of July, with earlier reports suggesting the process to be done in May. The company, however, has not disclosed any details regarding going public. The reports also state that Lenskart has chosen its banking partners for the issue, namely, Kotak, Axis Capital, Citi, Morgan Stanley, and Avendus. The listing is poised to raise USD 1 billion at a valuation of USD 10 billion. Earlier reports of Lenskart filing papers in May came after the company's top brass, Peyush Bansal, and key investors in the company had reportedly discussed matters around valuation with the banking institutions managing the potential billion-dollar listing. The reports, however, also said that the plans to go public were still based on market conditions closer to tentative dates. The company valuation that Lenskart is eyeing will be double its value during the last Series I, USD 262 million, plus an undisclosed sum funding round led by the likes of ChrysCapital, Infinity Partners, Chiratae Ventures, and Aditya Birla Capital. The eyewear retail unicorn, currently Series I, has previously raised USD 231 million in Series G funding from Tokyo-based SoftBank Vision Fund in its largest-ever funding round in 2019. This was followed by another USD 220 million in 2021 led by Alpha Wave Global, Temasek, Chiratae Ventures, Technology Venture Partners, IFC, and Bay Capital, with financial services firm Avendus facilitating both rounds, according to Tracxn. The 2021 funding round took Lenskart to a valuation of USD 2.4 billion with recorded revenue of USD 165 million, almost double the USD 1.4 billion in 2019. The company is now at USD 5.6 billion in valuation as of November 2024, with the FY2023-24 revenue recorded at USD 678.8 million. Lenskart currently is the market leader in its sector in India, with a 79 per cent market share, with retail stores across Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and the USA. The company's recent focus on the mass premium eyewear segment has also allowed it to compete with players such as Titan Eye.
Khaleej Times
17-06-2025
- Business
- Khaleej Times
NRIs in UAE: How to invest in forward and options market in India
Question: Investment in the forward and option segment has become popular and is catching up with young inexperienced investors in India. Are any steps being taken to mitigate the risks to which inexperienced investors may be exposed? ANSWER: The market regulator has proposed a set of new rules which would put a limit on the value of open positions in index options. This would strengthen risk monitoring measures and make derivatives trading safer. According to the Securities & Exchange Board of India, the derivatives market plays a crucial role as it enables efficient price discovery, enhances market liquidity and permits investors to manage the risks. The new rules, which are to be rolled out from July 1 this year, will link total positions in the derivatives market to the cash market. This will lead to disclosure of risks in the futures and options (F&O) segment and provide better oversight in respect of possibility of concentration or manipulation risks in index options. In case of any breach of rules, participants will be given an opportunity to correct the same. Stock exchanges are empowered to levy additional surveillance margins, monitor entity-level concentration and implement safeguards to protect the interest of investors. Further, there will be intraday monitoring of market-wide positions in single stock derivative trades. To ensure due compliance with the rules, stock exchanges and clearing corporations are jointly preparing standard operating procedures. Question: The IPO market in India has been sluggish and many startups are in a bind. Is there any way for new entrepreneurs to get enough funding until they are ripe to make a public offering? ANSWER: You are right in saying that the IPO market is currently muted and startups are therefore finding it difficult to raise funds from the public. However, private credit funds are accessible to promising startups and they provide bridge finance to new entrepreneurs until their companies are ready for the initial public offering. First generation entrepreneurs have raised funds from venture capital and private equity companies, though such funds come at a fairly high cost of 14-18 per cent annually. It has recently been noted that traditional banks are losing ground to agile, tech driven private credit funds. The growth of the fintech sector is based on modern technology stacks and front-to-back digitised operating models. Startups are therefore securing funds from non-bank companies which have scalable platforms, lean cost structures, and a digital-first approach. Many entrepreneurs are offering their personal holdings as collateral for a structured credit deal which is generally of a three-year tenor. Startups are structuring their deals with convertible instruments, but at a high coupon rate, until they are ready to enter the IPO pipeline. Question: There is a lot of hype in India about data centres multiplying not only in metros but also in smaller cities of India. Are the prospects as rosy as they look? ANSWER: The data centre industry in India is poised for phenomenal growth in the next five years and is expected to attract around $25 billion in fresh investments. From just 307 MW in 2018, the data centre capacity has shot up to 1.26 GW in March this year, which is a four-fold increase in seven years. The industry has entered a transformative phase with hyper scale expansion to Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities, though Mumbai, Hyderabad and Chennai continue to dominate the landscape by having almost two-thirds of the total capacity. The market is expanding to cover edge data centres driven by the demand from OTT platforms and CDN providers for low latency, high performance content delivery. According to experts, this growth is triggered by rapid adoption of cloud computing, AI, IoT, and accelerated digitalisation. A major factor responsible for this growth is the drastic reduction in communication costs, reflected by the fact that the price of 1 GB of data has fallen to Rs.9 from Rs.287 eleven years ago. Thus, India's data cost of 11 cents per GB is less than 5 per cent of the world's average of $2.5 per GB. According to the Minister in charge of the department, India is now globally recognised as a digital-first economy led by advancements in the telecom sector as a result of growth in connectivity with mobile subscribers increasing to 1.2 billion.
