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Lapaire is a pan-African company specializing in visual health, founded in 2018. It targets a population that was previously excluded from the market for quality optical care by offering services and products at fair and transparent prices through a network of proximity and personalized customer service.
Lapaire operates more than 50 optical agencies across the African continent, employing over 300 people. With the goal of becoming the leading eyewear brand in Africa, Lapaire plans to open additional optical agencies in major cities as well as in peri-urban areas
Entrepreneurs
Graduated from the University of Geneva Law School, Jérôme Lapaire, a Swiss national and lawyer by profession, founded Lapaire Glasses in 2018 with his personal savings and money from friends, after realizing that access to quality eye care was a particularly burdensome problem in Kenya. The cost of an ophthalmological consultation, the time it takes and the price of prescription glasses are often too great a burden for a large proportion of the population.
He is joined in this entrepreneurial adventure by Louis Gascoin, who holds an MBA from EDHEC Business School, specializes in operational excellence and distribution development. Based in Côte d'Ivoire since 2012, he has built up solid professional experience in project development with multinationals such as Servair (owner of the Burger King franchise), where he was General Manager Côte d'Ivoire from 2017 to 2020.
Partnership with I&P
Lapaire Glasses is supported by I&P through the I&P Afrique Entrepreneurs 2 (IPAE 2) fund, which is joined by AfricInvest in this round of financing. This partnership will help the company :
- Open 250 additional stores in 3 years, including expansion into 5 new African countries;
- Strengthen and structure management, operational teams and working capital for this new period of growth;
- Strengthen the company's IT infrastructure.
Expected impact
- Extend access to quality corrective eyewear and ophthalmic care to populations excluded from the conventional healthcare system ;
- Job creation.
Articles to read
⇒ Jérôme Lapaire's portrait on LeTemps.ch