LONDON, December 12, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --
Prescription Eyewear Ltd, the parent company of myOptique.com, SunglassesShop.com and GlassesDirect.com, announced today that it has added LensOn, the leading Nordic online contact lens seller, to its growing portfolio of market-leading brands.
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Founders Kim Persson and Johan Bergenheim will continue to manage the LensOn business and drive growth for the whole group in the Nordic region. The European eyewear market is estimated at over €25bn of which currently only 3-4% is online. As the optical market follows other high-growth ecommerce categories such as fashion and apparel towards online penetration rates closer to 10%, the Company has identified a €3-4 billion opportunity in the European online market over the next 3-5 years.
Prescription Eyewear Limited's CEO Kevin Cornils comments, "We're extremely excited to be adding the LensOn team and business into our portfolio of brands including Glasses Direct, Sunglasses Shop and MyOptique. LensOn has established itself as a strong player across the Nordic region and we look forward to working with them to grow their business not only into new European markets, but also to complement their current contact lens offering with prescription glasses and sunglasses. The deal also solidifies PEL's position as the clear market leader in the fast-growing European online eyewear category and positions us well to take advantage of the significant shift we're seeing as consumers increasingly choose the internet for the choice, value and convenience that it offers."
Kim Persson, CEO of LensOn remarked, "PEL and its businesses will be a great partner for us as we look to continue our rapid growth across the Nordic markets and beyond. Their expertise and leading position in selling glasses and sunglasses online will enable us to greatly accelerate our efforts in those markets and provide a full-service offering to our customers. We also look forward to working with them to extend our business into the UK and continental European markets including Germany and France where the opportunity is significant."
The LensOn acquisition caps a busy year for the PEL group that saw;
The acquisition was financed by Prescription Eyewear's existing venture capital investors, Acton Capital Partners (Etsy, Zooplus, MyTheresa, Linas Matkasse), Highland Capital Partners (VistaPrint, Qihoo, Lulu Lemon, Starent, Quigo) and Index Ventures (Skype, mySQL, Net-A-Porter, ASOS, Etsy, LoveFilm, Last.fm). Additional funding was received from GP BullHound Sidecar, Silicon Valley Bank and Kreos Capital. The company was advised by GP Bullhound on financing and Wilmer Hale on legals.
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