Verdane reaps 6x on LensOn exit

The acquisition was financed by Prescription Eyewear's existing venture capital investors Acton Capital Partners, Highland Capital Partners and Index Ventures. GP BullHound Sidecar, Silicon Valley Bank and Kreos Capital provided additional funding.

Verdane secured a 6x return on its 2006 investment in LensOn.

Previous funding
Acton notably led a £10m second round of funding for Prescription Eyewear subsidiary GlassesDirect.com, alongside returning backers Index Ventures and Highland Capital, in 2009. Index Ventures and Highland Capital first supported the company in July 2007 with a £3.8m investment.

Secondaries direct specialist Verdane acquired LensOn in 2006 through a portfolio acquisition from Aggregate Media Funds. The company has since then grown from being purely Sweden-focused to a Nordic player by expanding into Denmark, Finland and Norway.

Company
LensOn is an independent online retailer of contact lenses in the Nordic region. It sells contact lenses through local sites in Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark, the Netherlands, Germany, France and the UK. More than 50% of sales are generated outside the Swedish market. LensOn is based in Stockholm and employs 30 staff.

Prescription Eyewear is the holding company of myOptique.com, SunglassesShop.com and GlassesDirect.com. The combined group will generate a turnover of nearly £30m in 2012 and will employ 140 staff in both the UK and Sweden.

People
Staffan Mörndal led the deal for Verdane. Kim Persson and Johan Bergenheim are co-founders of LensOn.

Advisers
Acquirer – GP Bullhound (Debt advisory); Wilmer Hale (Legal).

• Tweet  
• Facebook  
• LinkedIn  
• Google plus  
• Send to  

• Topics
• Exits
• Portfolio management
• Nordics
• Consumer
• Sweden
• Verdane Capital Partners