British optical retailer MyOptique Group has raised £16m led by Korys and Beringea.
The investment closes a Series C funding round and brings the total investment for the round to £35m.
The latest round came from two new investors Korys and Beringea with additional funding from existing investor Cipio Partners and Silicon Valley Bank.
With the initial investment, the £35m round is one of the five biggest UK technology venture capital investments of 2014.
One million customers
MyOptique Group provide branded and own brand prescription glasses, contact lenses and sunglasses via websites that include Glasses Direct, Sunglasses Shop, LensOn and MyOptique.
They celebrate their tenth birthday this year and have posted £34m in retail sales for the year ending April 2014.
The company also announced they have served the their millionth customer.
Online potential
MyOptique see a huge amount of opportunity in the online retail space.
The investment will be used to finance marketing investment and expansion into Europe.
They will also invest in new technology in hope to achieve their mission to have more glasses bought online than through traditional stores.
Kevin Cornils, MyOptique CEO, commented:
The offline European optical market is valued at over €25 billion today.
However, while over half of consumers now buy books online, and nearly 20 per cent of apparel is now bought online, only 2 per cent of people currently buy their glasses online – meaning that the potential is massive as consumers follow the trends in other categories.