Kits Eyecare to launch $55-million IPO on TSX as early as Tuesday

, according to its final prospectus, raising considerably more than it had initially anticipated in its preliminary prospectus. In its initial filing, Kits had expected to sell 4.7 million to 5.3 million shares at between $7.50 and $8.50 a share, for gross proceeds of approximately $40-million.With 31 million shares outstanding, Kits will be valued at approximately $263-million.

With its January IPO, Kits joins a slew of e-commerce companies including Toronto-based Emerge Commerce, tech entrepreneur Andrew Wilkinson’s WeCommerce, and online data management service provider Pivotree that have rushed to take advantage of the coronavirus-induced investor enthusiasm for the tech sector.

Kits was founded in 2018 in Vancouver by Mr. Hardy and his two co-founders -- former Goldman Sachs executive Sabrina Liak and Joseph Thompson, formerly of Amazon and Proctor & Gamble -- as an online-only platform selling contact lenses and glasses. The company has 49 employees, 13 of which are employed in its head office, with the additional 36 at its distribution and fulfillment centre.

Mr. Hardy previously co-founded Coastal Contacts, also an online retailer of eyewear that was publicly traded, but ended up being sold to eyewear manufacturer Essilor International SA for $430-million in 2014. He then had a brief but unsuccessful foray into the online shoe-selling business, leadingTwo years later, in the spring of 2019, Mr. Hardy’s investment firm, Hardy Capital, was back in the eyewear game, with a $70-million private purchase of LD Vision Group, another B.C.

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