Sheryl Sandberg cites eyewear startup from Bengaluru

In her recent Facebook post while launching WhatsApp Business, Sheryl Sandberg, the COO of Facebook, cited a startup from Bengaluru by the name of Glassic.

Glassic was one of the first few startups to team up with WhatsApp during their testing phase along with BookMyShow and MakeMyTrip.

Being a small business, Glassic started using WhatsApp to interact with their customers efficiently hence making the customer experience better.

Glassic designs and manufactures high quality eyewear in-house and delivers them directly to their customers via their website www.glassic.in. Courtesy a lean supply chain, Glassic is able to sell their products at under Rs. 3,000 while offering the best quality to their customers.

The company was started by brothers Kailash and Devesh Nichani in 2015. Being born in a family of eyewear practitioners, Kailash gained insight into the industry. Devesh, on the other hand, worked with companies such as Deloitte and Google before teaming up with Kailash to manage digital marketing and finance activities at Glassic.

"In India, Glasses have always been dealt with seriousness and boredom since decades. We wanted to show people that it doesn't have to be that way," said Kailash.

"Our branding, imagery and product quality has helped us create an identity in a crowded market and this has prompted our customers coming back to buy multiple pairs within a month," said Devesh.

Having sold eyewear to 12,000+ customers, Glassic has recently raised a seed round which saw participation by The Chennai Angels, Lead Angels and LetsVenture.

Manav Goyal from TCA said, "Glassic's deep understanding of the eyewear industry has helped them work with very healthy unit economics. This was one of our main drivers to lead the investment round."

In a crowded eyewear market that's split between unbranded, substandard products being sold in the sub Rs. 4,000 category and a red ocean filled with branded eyewear in the Rs. 4000+ category, Glassic stands as a brand that's bridging the gap between these two markets.

LetsVenture's Shanti Mohan validates this by saying, "To see Glassic create strong repeatability in an industry that's plagued with almost no repeatability, proved to us that they're creating a fun refreshing eyewear brand."

Recently raised funds will be utilised to create new inventory, add more resources to the team and in marketing the brand.