NEWS
NEWS
NEWS
Malaysian based online glasses retailer GlassesGroupGlobal raises $3m Series A
Online glasses retailer GlassesGroupGlobal has raised $3 million Series A in a round that included Caixa Capital, Nova Founders Capital, along with Skype co-founder Toivo Annus, Uwe Kolb, Siegfried Drueker and others.
Based in Malaysia but selling to a diverse number of countries including Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Philipines, Thailand, Australia, New Zealand, Germany, United Kingdom, Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark, Austria, and of course their own native Malaysia, the company offers a comprehensive range of branded prescription glasses, sunglasses and contact lenses, naturally at an affordable price.
GlassesGroupGlobal was founded and remains led by Christopher Strauch, the former Managing Director of Zalora and an ex-CEO of Rocket Internet UK, and has rapidly spread around the globe in an aim, in their words, to “take over the eyewear space.”
The company trades under a variety of names, including GlassesOnline, GetGlasses, Glasses, and Glasses&Co, and offers 20,000 prescription glasses, contact lenses, and designer sunglasses from over 150 brands.
“Caixa has a strong focus on working with outstanding entrepreneurs to build category- leading companies,” Executive Director of Caixa Capital Stephan Morais said in a statement sent to SiliconANGLE. “GlassesGroupGlobal is addressing a large, global market, and is seeing accelerated adoption. The company has a bright future and we are excited to be part of it.”
Growth opportunities
While primarily targeting the Asia-Pacific region, and markets such as Thailand that have not seen this sort of online retailing before, the company has ample growth opportunities both within its local region, as well as further afield, hence its recent expansion into Europe.
American companies such as Clearly Contacts have dominated the space in Western, English-speaking countries, but there’s ample opportunities in many markets that don’t speak English, and this is the void GlassesGroupGlobal is more than happy, and willing to fill.
Having a Skype co-founder investing in the show also does help, and anyone reading this doesn’t need a history lesson on how successful Skype became.
Including this round, GlassesGroupGlobal has raised $4.5 million to-date.
The company said it would use the new funding to further continue its global expansion.
Image credit: brianhenrythompson/Flickr/CC by 2.0
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