Sunday, November 9, 2025 at a Lenskart Solutions Ltd. store in Mumbai, India.
Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Shares of Lenskart Solutions, the SoftBank-backed eyewear retailer, opened weakly on Monday, trading as much as 11% below its issue price, but recovered in early trading.
lens cart The stock last traded at INR 402.22 ($4.53), up 0.05% from its IPO issue price of INR 402.
Lukewarm startup as opposed to home service startup urban companybecame a huge hit in September, rising more than 60% in its debut.
Lenskart’s $828 million IPO was one of the most anticipated in India this year, with bids exceeding 28 times the offered shares. Demand was driven by institutional investors and wealthy individuals, while individual interest was relatively weak.
SoftBank-backed Lenskart IPO receives lukewarm response from investors
Bhavesh Shah, head of investment banking at Equilus Capital, told CNBC that many small investors are chasing short-term gains by “jumping from one IPO to another.” This liquidity from one IPO to another creates selling pressure on the day of listing, he added.
A study by India’s market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India found that 54% of IPO shares allocated to investors, excluding anchor investors, were sold within a week. According to the study, between April 2021 and December 2024, retail investors sold 50% of their allocated shares by value within one week of listing and 70% of their shares by value within one year.
Do you value vision?
Lenskart’s IPO was hotly debated on Indian social media last week, with some analysts claiming the company was “overvalued” on the issue.
“At the IPO price, Renkart’s share price was more than 200 times earnings, but most of the company’s profits in 2025 still came from non-core businesses,” said Devina Mehra, founder of investment firm First Global.
Others defended the growth prospects of one of India’s most storied startups. In a social media post, investment banker Sarthak Ahuja highlighted that several leading institutional investors were early participants in Lenskart’s offering.
Top institutional investors who participated in Lenskart’s IPO include the Singapore government (2.97%) and global investors such as BlackRock and Fidelity, which purchased shares through multiple funds.
