Uttar Pradesh based Online Optical Marketplace and eyewear brand ClearDekho has raised Rs. 2 Crore (Nearly $300,000) in a pre-Series-A investment round from incubation and funding platform Venture Catalysts.
The startup will utilise the funding amount to boost marketing initiatives, strengthen back-end operations and recruit fresh talent, as informed by Shivi Singh, co-founder at ClearDekho.
The funding round led through Vcat platform witnessed participation from several institutional investors such as Pune based Windrose Capital and Samyakuth Capital, a hybrid growth fund based in Mumbai. In addition, there were angel investors too who put their money including Anand Naidu, Dhianu Das, Gagan Gupta.
Founded by Saurabh Dayal and Shivi Singh in 2016, ClearDekho is a prominent Budget Optical Retail Brand dedicated to providing a standardized affordable optical solution to anyone, anywhere across India. With a unique blend of online & offline shopping models, the brand deals with a wide range of products from sunglasses, prescription glasses and branded contact lenses.
ClearDekho has recently opened 25 stores in n Haryana, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttarakhand which it has established in a mere six month of operations.
Saurabh Dayal informed in a statement that the company has a unique asset-light business model. With the latest funds onboard, ClearDekho is gearing up to launch 100 stores before December 2018 achieving its target of 500 company stores in India within next two years.
Venture Catalysts, on the other hand, is an incubator known for investing in startups that was founded in 2015 by a entrepreneurs Apoorv Ranjan Sharma, Anuj Golecha, Anil Jain and Gaurav Jain. Its most recent investments include Kolkata headquartered Idea Insurance Brokers, Lingerie brand InnerSense and crowdfunding platform ImpactGuru.