LONDON—Online optical company MyOptique Group has acquired the leading German eyewear business 4Care, which sells prescription glasses, contact lenses and sunglasses through its website Lensbest.de and operates a wholesale operation, Acumed, and popular brands Lennox Eyewear and Lenscare.

In parallel, MyOptique Group said it has acquired the largest UK premium online eyewear business Eyewearbrands.com. The acquisition enables MyOptique Group to move further into the luxury eyewear market which it entered in 2012 when it launched MyOptique.com and expanded with the debut of a designer boutique department on Glasses Direct in October 2014.

Transaction details were not disclosed. The company said that these recent deals “are part of MyOptique Group’s aggressive expansion strategy designed to further strengthen its leadership within the major European markets across all eyewear product categories—prescription glasses, contact lenses and sunglasses. They support the Group’s multi brand and multi segment strategy which allows effective targeting and servicing of European consumers.”

The company’s latest acquisitions join the other online sites/brands within the company’s retail brand portfolio, including Glasses Direct, Sunglasses Shop, LensOn, MyOptique and Netzoptiker, “backed by the group’s unique scalable and flexible in-house infrastructure.” A statement said that the combined businesses will have served a total of 3 million customers and are expected to generate €100 million (£71 million) in retail sales in the current year.

MyOptique Group said its acquisitions were financed by the group’s existing investors who were joined in this round totaling €28 million (£20m) by Harbert European Growth Capital and Amery Capital.

Through the acquisition of the 4Care business, the second largest online optical retailer in the German market, MyOptique Group said, its is now positioned as “the clear European leader” in this space. 4Care, it pointed out, was the first German company to offer contact lenses by mail order, the first business to distribute contact lenses via pharmacies and retailers (including Aldi, Metro and Rossmann), the first to sell own brand contacts as a fully certified medical producer and the first online eyewear player to move to a fully responsive website design.

The deal follows the appointment of a German CMO, Sven Ripper, last November and the acquisition of the German Netzoptiker business in February 2015. 4Care joint managing directors Bernd Behrens and Marco Siegmund, with proven experience committed to leading German growth, now join the senior management team.

MyOptique CEO Kevin Cornils commented, “4Care is a fantastic fit for MyOptique Group with our shared focus on innovation, passion for outstanding customer service and their strong management team. We’re excited to have Bernd and Marco join our executive team and help lead our continued European expansion into Germany and beyond. At the same time, the acquisition of Eyewearbrands will substantially increase our premium designer offering in a fast-growing market segment. Consumers are becoming ever more enthusiastic about buying their glasses online, purchasing more frequently than historically has been achieved on the high street, and at MyOptique our growing brand portfolio presents them with the best possible set of choices online.”

4Care joint managing directors Bernd Behrens and Marco Siegmund added, “We’re delighted to be joining the MyOptique Group to help us realize our goals of further growth in the German-speaking markets and beyond. In particular, the scale of the group and their significant experience and innovation in the prescription and sunglasses categories will be very helpful to us, and also provide us a bigger platform to expand our own contact lens brand Lenscare.”

MyOptique Group's investor partners include Acton Capital Partners, Amery Capital, Beringea, Cipio Partners, Harbert European Growth Capital, Highland Capital Partners, Index Ventures and Korys.