NEW YORK—Eponym, the eyewear licensing platform that partners with several designers to create sunwear and optical lines, has completed a $7 million Series A round of financing led by Tenfore Holdings, Tribeca Venture Partners, RiverPark Ventures and WTI, according to an announcement from the company.

The funding will help Eponym expand its staff by as much as 50 percent, accelerate marketing and retail operations from its existing partners, and build new technology and marketing to support new partner launches. The funding round caps off a year where Eponym re-signed its first brand partner Steven Alan to a new 10-year contract and inked esteemed brands alice + olivia and Jason Wu to long term deals.

“This investment reaffirms that brands and consumers alike want eyewear to be more accessible,” said CEO and founder Andrew Lipovsky. “We believe this funding will help us solidify our place as the leader in digital-first licensing for brands.”

As reported by VMail, Eponym's digital platform enables established brands, like Steven Alan, to design and distribute prescription eyewear and sunwear directly to their customers, under their own label, online and in their stores. The company provides an entirely turnkey solution, void of financial risk to each partner brand, the company said.

And in December, Eponym launched DITTO’s advanced 3D virtual try-on technology on the e-commerce sites of its licensed eyewear brands: Classic Specs and Steven Alan Optical, as reported in VMail.

Eponym collaborates closely with each partner brand's design team to create a unique eyewear line. Once the collection is developed, the company engineers and hosts a custom-designed website to sell the eyewear, as well as builds technology to support in-store sales. It also handles all product fulfillment, customer service, CRM, and invests in advertising to help grow each partner brand’s market share.