Lapaire, a leading pan-African eyecare company committed to providing innovative eyecare services to underserved communities in Africa has unlocked $3 million in investments. This timely investment comes as Lapaire expands its services across the African continent.
A Saviu backed startup, and part of EYElliance’s inclusive optical scale out cohort, Lapaire attracted this laudable $3 million investment through an equity round led by I&P, a pioneer impact investment fund in Africa, Investisseurs & Partenaires, with participation from international investors AAIC, FINCA Ventures and Beyond Capital. The startup also received advisory support provided by CrossBoundary through USAID’s ATI program in support of the US Government’s Prosper Africa initiative.Â
This innovative eyecare service started when Lapaire saw that he could order eyeglasses online, and he ordered a shipment of 30 pairs of eyeglasses. This first shipment enabled him to bootstrap the Lapaire brand in Kenya out of his apartment, and from these humble beginnings, a one-stop-shop eyecare empire was born out of necessity. Â
Since its launch in 2018, Jérôme Lapaire, the founder of Lapaire, has stated that his business concept, which uses a business-to-business (B2B) approach to supply half a billion people on the African continent with fashionable, high-quality spectacles at a reasonable price, has proven effective.
"Over the last few years, we worked hard to build a highly scalable model and we are now in the best position to accelerate our growth to positively impact the life of 1 million people across the continent by 2026," said Lapaire.
Today, Lapaire fully operates 56 branches in six African countries, namely Côte d’Ivoire, Togo, Benin, Mali, Burkina Faso & Uganda. With its new $3 million capital injection, Lapaire plans to open 300 new eyecare centres across Africa.