Brillen.de

About Brillen.de

SuperVista AG, operating under its primary brand Brillen.de in Germany, functions as a vertically integrated, omnichannel optical business. The company was established in 2012 by Matthias Kamppeter, an optician with prior experience managing multiple optical stores, his wife Christine Kamppeter, and Daniel Thung, a venture investor with a background in capital markets and media. Matthias Kamppeter's extensive industry knowledge stems from his family's background in ophthalmology and his own experience starting his first optical shop in 1997. Christine Kamppeter, a business administration graduate, manages the financial aspects of the company. Daniel Thung contributes his expertise from the tech sector and previous work as a news reporter.

The core of SuperVista's business model is a hybrid approach that merges online sales with in-person services. Customers typically begin their journey on the company's website, where they can browse and select eyewear. They then book an appointment at one of the over 1,700 affiliated partner opticians or company-owned stores across several European countries for services like eye exams and frame fittings. This model aims to combine the cost efficiencies of an online retailer with the essential, high-touch service of traditional opticians, eliminating intermediary costs. The company manufactures its own single vision and progressive lenses at a production facility in Shanghai, which it then markets directly to consumers under brands like Gino Vega and John Brandon. Revenue is generated through the sale of these complete prescription glasses.

A significant milestone occurred in 2016 when the company, then named brillen.de Optik AG, rebranded to SuperVista AG and secured a €45 million investment from Technology Crossover Ventures (TCV), a US firm known for backing companies like Facebook and Netflix. This was the first institutional funding for the family-owned business and was intended to fuel international expansion. The company has since expanded its operations to Austria, Spain (gafas.es), Italy (occhiali24.it), Poland (brillen.pl), and the UK (Specsfactory.co.uk and STEINER-Vision). A further Series B funding round in the double-digit million range was completed in 2022, led by the family office Lennertz & Co., which had previously invested and exited in 2016. In 2023, SuperVista launched optiservX, a B2B platform offering a suite of free, modular tools to help independent opticians with customer acquisition, product range expansion, and administration.