PAIR Eyewear Closes $12 Million Series A Investment Round, Launches Adult Product Line

Accessories are as critical to making a fashion statement as are the clothes a person wears. They accentuate the outfit, set a tone and reveal an individual’s character. Wearing glasses used to label a person as uncool automatically. With the help of celebrities and professional athletes, eyewear has now become trendy. The global eyewear market is expected to reach $258.63 billion by 2027. Although wearing glasses has become fashionable, there’s been one major problem: frames are static and for some people buying more than one pair of eyeglasses is unaffordable. That is until Forbes 30 Under 30 honorees Sophia Edelstein and her partner, Nathan Kondamuri, launched PAIR Eyewear. 

Together the cofounders created a way to make eyeglasses stylish and interchangeable by creating a base frame that allows the consumer to customize and change the top color and design. As the first direct-to-consumer customizable children’s eyewear brand, the company is reimagining the consumer experience for kids and adults. The company has sustained a 30% month-over-month growth through the pandemic and is generating 10% of monthly sales through TikTok. PAIR just announced the close of a $12 million Series A investment round led by Alex Gurevich at Javelin Venture Partners. 

The round included participation from Norwest Venture Partners, Precursor Ventures, Gingerbread Capital and other strategic investors, including NFL player Christian McCaffrey, David Rogier, founder and CEO of Masterclass. The company will use the funding to expand its product lines, brand partnerships and grow its team across all departments. 

“What we’ve been able to create is the first eyewear model that actually leads to repeat spend,” Edelstein explains. “Our customers are so obsessed with the idea of changing their glasses on a daily basis that they come back every week and every month to expand their collection. We got to the point where we have actually been launching three new collections a month to keep up with customer demand for new top brands. When we saw that growth, we realized that to take the next level and bring customizable eyewear to more people, we needed to raise Series A funding.”

Edelstein and Kondamuri met while attending Stanford. The idea for PAIR came about when Kondamuri’s younger brother struggled with finding his first set of eyeglasses. A fascination with the inner workings of the industry turned into the start of a multimillion-dollar idea. By the time they graduated, they had set out to build the next modern eyewear brand focused on their thesis of personalization that allowed consumers to express themselves and share their dynamic style. 

“It started as we’re super interested in this question, and we want to try to create a better solution for people,” she comments. “We never thought at the very beginning that we were going to start a company, but rather, we wanted to solve this problem. Before we were even thinking about starting a company, we actually went to the Product Realization Lab at Stanford and created the first prototype by hand. … People started asking us, ‘When can I buy this?’ We were absolutely stunned that people would even buy this product. That’s when we started thinking about how if people are asking us for this product literally out of our hands, maybe this could become a company.”

A key factor to their success was their foresight to surround themselves with people who understood the industry and were operating a sustainable business. They onboarded the former head of product from Warby Parker as their first hire. Edelstein and Kondamuri built a team of individuals that complimented their strengths to scale the business model. Initially, the cofounders raised $4.5 million, including funding from Norwest Venture Partners, Precursor Ventures, Bolt and Alpaca VC.

One of the biggest hurdles the company faced during the fast growth period was trying to fulfill the demand of the product and the development of the adult product line. “You’re focused on getting the product out there as quickly as possible,” Edelstein comments. “It’s so important to also focus on always improving your product and product development. So for us, one thing that we’ve put a huge effort into focusing on is always improving the product. This adult launch has been more than two years in the making because there’s so much research and development that had to go behind the infrastructure to even make it possible.”

Additionally, PAIR has created successful licensing deals with Marvel, NBA and Harry Potter, with more coming in the upcoming months. One of its core pillars for business is working with EYElliance, a nonprofit multi-sector coalition that drives the global strategy to increase access to eyeglasses at scale. For every pair of glasses sold, PAIR donates a portion of the proceeds to help provide glasses to children in need worldwide. 

As Edelstein and her team continue to expand and transition the company, she focuses on the following essential steps:

• Utilize the power of cold calling. It’s underrated. It’s a numbers game. There will be people who respond to an unsolicited message.
• Surround yourself with mentors who are two or three steps ahead of you. Ask them questions. Learn from their mistakes. 
• Figure out the formula to incorporate what you love doing into a career. 

“What’s so incredible about the product that we’ve created is the emotional connection that people have with it,” Edelstein concludes. “You’re wearing what you believe and who you are on your face.”