- Online prescription glasses and sunglasses retailer Warby Parker recently announced that it closed $245 million in funding from D1 Capital Partners, Durable Capital Partners, T. Rowe Price, and Baillie Gifford
Online prescription glasses and sunglasses retailer Warby Parker recently announced that it closed $245 million in funding from D1 Capital Partners, Durable Capital Partners, T. Rowe Price, and Baillie Gifford. And according to TechCrunch’s sources, this funding round was at a valuation of $3 billion.
The $245 million was in a combination of a Series F round ($125 million led by Durable Capital Partners in Q2 2020) and a Series G round ($120 million led by D1 Capital in Q3 2020). Those two funding rounds were previously unannounced.
Warby Parker had to radically shift its operations due to the COVID-19 pandemic. For example, the Buy A Pair, Give A Pair program, which offered vision services around the globe turned into an operation focused on stopping the spread of COVID-19 in higher risk countries. And the company also utilized its Optical Lab in New York as a distribution center for facilitating the donation of N95 masks to medical workers.
Plus Warby Parker also launched a telehealth service for New York customers, which allowed them to extend existing glasses or contacts prescriptions through virtual visits with an OD at Warby Parker. And the Prescription Check app was expanded to new states.
Some of the biggest reasons why Warby Parker does well is because it can sell fashionable prescription glasses for under $100 per frame. And the company also allows customers to order multiple frames delivered at a time and then send it back after deciding which ones to keep.
Warby Parker has 125 retail stores across the U.S. and Canada where it sells products as well. Last year, Warby Parker launched a virtual try-on feature that utilizes augmented reality for enabling customers to see what frames look like on their face.
Including this funding round, Warby Parker has raised a total of more than $535 million.
Warby Parker was launched in 2010 in Philadelphia by Neil Blumenthal, Andrew Hunt, David Gilboa, and Jeffrey Raider. And the company originally started in the Venture Initiation Program of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania where the founders met.
