SATURDAYS – on a Mission to Provide Access to Affordable Eyewear Across Indonesia
The Company aims to accelerate expansion, strengthen its tech-enabled omnichannel experience and deepen its product offering
Jakarta, 27 April 2022 – Indonesian eyewear brand, SATURDAYS, has secured Series A funding for an undisclosed amount led by Altara Ventures. DSG Consumer Partners and other affiliates also joined the round. With this new funding, SATURDAYS aims to accelerate its expansion across Indonesia, strengthen its tech-enabled omnichannel experience and deepen its product offering.
“SATURDAYS offers affordable, high quality eyewear designed to fit and look great on Asian consumers. Technology plays a key role in our omnichannel approach to provide convenience for customers to shop through our website, mobile app, chat, home try-on or stores. As a DTC brand, it is very important that we wow customers on the first encounter to create a lasting impression and enduring brand,” says SATURDAYS Co-Founder Andrew Kandolha
SATURDAYS was founded to solve a large problem: nearly half of the Indonesian population needs vision correction but only a third are able to access or afford the prescription glasses and vision care services they require. Those who are able to afford glasses either overpay for branded eyewear designed for Western faces or have to contend with poor quality and/or fake branded eyewear with poor customer experience. The World Health Organization released a study stating that a pair of eyewear can improve productivity by 30% and overall income by 20% in emerging countries.
“We want to be the solution by providing access to eyewear to millions and bringing new vision through our tech-enabled omnichannel approach. We are excited to partner with great investors to support our mission to solve vision problems in Indonesia,” says SATURDAYS Co-Founder Rama Suparta.
SATURDAYS is reshaping the consumer eyewear shopping behavior and experience by bringing a digital-first, direct-to-consumer experience to Indonesian consumers. The company’s mobile app “SATURDAYS LIFESTYLE” launched in early 2021 is a step closer to providing a frictionless eyewear shopping experience. The app has features that enable consumers to try frames on virtually and to book a home try-on appointment. SATURDAYS pioneered the home try-on service, with licensed opticians bringing 100+ frames, along with eye testing equipment, into the comfort of one’s home. Offline stores play a key role in the discovery of new products, building brand equity, and developing trust and confidence with SATURDAYS customers. SATURDAYS currently has 15 stores – 8 of which were opened in the last 3 months – in top-tier Indonesian malls, and aims to boost expansion over the next year.
“SATURDAYS’ hybrid online-offline solution, through its network of lifestyle retail stores and its mobile home-try-on service, is a unique way to extend the reach of its lifestyle-concept retail stores. Underneath SATURDAYS’ millennial appeal – from brand partnerships like Marvel and EVOS, to its hippie-chic in-store cafe serving great coffee and baked goods – is an efficient and sustainable business that aims to bring affordable eyewear services beyond Indonesia’s tier one cities,” says Altara Ventures’ Partner, Huiting Koh.
“SATURDAYS is poised to turn what has traditionally been a tactile, in-store sales experience into a digital-first DTC sales channel. Between the value it offers, the quality of its distribution and consumer experience, and the unique benefits it offers to an Indonesian and Southeast Asian market, the decision to invest in SATURDAY was not difficult. We have seen other global DTC eyewear players in this space and we are excited to be partnering with SATURDAYS for its next phase of growth,” says DSG Consumer Partners Head of Southeast Asia, Sameer Mehta.
In 2020, SATURDAYS received early-stage funding from local and regional venture capital firms Alpha JWC Ventures, Kinesys Group and Alto Partners.