Glasses Group Global, a Hong Kong based company that retails prescription glasses, sunglasses and contact lenses, just raised $500K from the Portuguese VC firm Caixa Capital in a Series A round, led by Nova Founders, in a total of $3M.

Born in 2013 and with millions of dollars in revenue, the company is currently in 8 countries in Western Asia and Oceania and is considered the biggest e-commerce platform for eyewear in Asia. They aim at expanding their activity in Europe and for that, they will set a Portuguese affiliate in Lisbon.

With this round, the company will invest $2M in the Portuguese subsidiary in the next two years and will create a technical team in Lisbon, hiring dozens of people. The goal is to use Lisbon as a platform to the rest of the European countries, building a global brand.

Caixa Capital is the company that manages the VC fund of the CGP Group, in Portugal. According to Stephen Morais, Executive Manager at Caixa Capital, with this investment, they intend to help the creation of jobs in Portugal, learn from the expertise of the company and connect Lisbon globally:

Considering our strategy of investing in opportunities that foster entrepreneurship and the creation of tech jobs in Portugal, investing in Glasses Group Global will let us benefit from the technical knowledge of the team, related to online retail of optical products and will establish a global platform that will connect Lisbon to the rest of the Europe and eventually, the rest of the world.

Christopher Strauch, founder and CEO Glasses Group Global, highlights the importance of the strategic partnership with the Portuguese investor:

We are very happy to work with Caixa Capital. This partnership, besides providing money, will be essential to establish a strong presence in Europe, from Portugal.

Portugal was chosen because of known assets: availability of technical human resources, proficiency in foreign languages and the affordable rents.

The recruitment process is already running.