According to a Bloomberg report on Wednesday, the 11-year-old company started as an e-retailer and later opened about 130 stores in the United States. It is considering an initial public offering as early as this year.
The New York-based company has accumulated a large number of customers by offering cheaper prescription glasses. According to reports, Warby Parker raised US$120 million in the latest round of financing, valued at US$3 billion.
“We have been exploring various financing opportunities in the debt and stock markets,” the company said in a statement. “To date, we have successfully and intentionally raised funds on preferential terms in the private market, and we have a large amount of cash on our balance sheet. We will continue to make strategic decisions based on our commitment to sustainable growth.”
The company was founded by Dave Gilboa and Neil Blumenthal, their university partners who met at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, as well as Jeff Raider and Andy Hunt.
Warby Parker is still run daily by co-CEOs Giboa and Blumenthal, attracting some large investors, including mutual fund company T. Rowe Price.
Customers can obtain prescriptions through the app on their smartphones and use the camera to select frames. The company also has an optical laboratory in Slotsburg, New York, where lenses are produced.
Although Warby Parker is not the cheapest option, in a recent comparison with Costco, it beats Costco. A pair of prescription glasses is only $126, while Warby Parker’s cheapest pair of glasses is $95.
“When consumers walk into LensCrafters or Sunglass Hut, they will see 50 different brands of glasses, but they don’t realize that all of these brands are owned by the same company that owns their store, which may have a vision insurance plan. Used to pay for these glasses,” Gilboa said in a recent CNBC interview.
“So it’s no surprise that many of these glasses cost 10 to 20 times the manufacturing cost,” he said.
Post time: Oct-19-2021