Ben & Frank, a Mexico City-based direct-to-consumer eyewear brand, should be positioned to exit in three to five years, co-CEOs Mariana Castillo and Eduardo Paulsen said.

The company, which has been profitable “for a long time”, generated USD 75m in revenue in the last 12 months, 35% more than in the previous year, they noted.

Asked about possible exit scenarios, the CEOs said that the company is open to sell itself to strategic buyers and investment funds, but is not considering an IPO.

The last IPO in Mexico was in 2020 when Cox Energy’s subsidiary Cox Energy America [BIVA:COXA] listed its shares.

According to the executives, some of the company’s backers expect it to seek an exit as soon as 2027 as they first invested around seven years ago.

Ben & Frank’s first funding round with venture capital firms was in 2017, with investments from Mexico City-based DILA Capital and Jaguar Ventures, as reported.

The 1,200- employee company then raised capital from the Latin American fund of L Catterton in October 2021 and in January 2023.

Proceeds have been used to finance the company’s expansion in Latin America, the CEOs said, noting that it currently has 10 stores in Chile and it expects to close this year with seven stores in Colombia.

A portion of the money has also been used to launch the firm’s second brand Bombavista, which targets a larger segment of the population by offering eyewear at a lower price than its main brand Ben & Frank, they added.

The company, which started out as a purely e-commerce business and then opened stores to offer an omnichannel customer experience, is not planning to raise more capital in the short term, the CEOs said.

Ben & Frank has also decided not to pursue acquisitions to accelerate growth, and would only consider the possibility if it decides to venture into Brazil at some point, according to the executives.

At the time of publication, Ben & Frank had a Likely to Issue (VC exit) score of 17 out of 100, according to Mergermarket’s LTI predictive algorithm. Mergermarket’s LTI predictive analytics assign a score to venture capital-backed companies to help track and predict when an exit could occur through M&A, an IPO, a direct listing or a deSPAC transaction.

The company competes in Mexico with traditional eyewear stores, such as Devlyn, Opticas Lux and Mas Vision, the CEOs said.