India’s eyewear giant Lenskart made its market debut with a bumper IPO today, underscoring how the Indian D2C ecosystem is transitioning to the public markets. The IPO included a fresh issue of ₹2,150 crore and an Offer for Sale (OFS) of around 12.7 crore shares.

Founders and early investors cashed in big: Peyush Bansal offloaded 2 crore shares and raked in about ₹823 crore. Meanwhile SoftBank’s SVF II Lightbulb sold 2.5 crore shares, yielding ₹1,025 crore and a return of 5.4× on its investment. Other investors saw even larger multipliers — Schroders with 9.8×, PI Opportunities with 16.6×.

This liquidity event is significant not just for Lenskart but for the broader Indian startup ecosystem: it shows that new-age brands can not only scale but also transition to profitable businesses with public market exits. Lenskart itself turned profitable for FY25 with a net profit of ₹297.3 crore on revenue of ₹6,652.5 crore.

That said, the listing wasn’t a runaway success: shares listed at a slight discount and faced muted debut performance. The valuation at ~₹70,000 crore (~$8 billion) implies high expectations and puts pressure on Lenskart to deliver consistent growth.

In short: The Lenskart IPO is a landmark event—transforming founders and investors into major wealth creators, while signalling confidence in Indian D2C companies making the leap to public markets.