Rogue Venture Partners, whose largest limited partner is Oregon State University, has led a $3.7m funding round for Lensabl.

Lensabl, a US-based company that lets customers replace lenses in old frames, has raised $3.7m in a funding round led by venture capital firm Rogue Venture Partners, according to TechCrunch. Birchmere Ventures, Aspect Ventures, Cherry Tree Investments, Amplify, Luma Launch, Watertower Ventures and Crowdsmart also participated in the round. Rogue Venture Partners began raising a $30m fund in February this year with Oregon State University as the largest limited partner. The university had already been the largest backer of Rogue’s second fund, a $10m vehicle closed in 2016. Lensabl allows consumers to order new lenses for frames they already own. Users provide the company with their prescription through an online form, select their preferences such as thinness and send in their frames to have the new lenses fitted. The company currently offers some 400 different permutations of lenses and 20 different tints. It has entered a range of partnerships with non-prescription eyewear producers, such as ephemeral photo messaging platform Snap, which sells spectacles with a camera. Andrew Bilinsky, chief executive of Lensabl, told TechCrunch: “We are the preferred prescription provider of Snapchat Spectacles. We are already talking to and partnering with a variety of brands to start and scale their prescription operations [and] really scale our direct to consumer lens business.”

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