Falguni Nayar is in the news for all the right reasons. Nykaa, her brainchild, has become India’s top e-commerce site for beauty products, with the likes of stars such as Janhvi Kapoor endorsing the brand. Nykaa, known formally as FSN E-Commerce Ventures Ltd., filed preliminary documents for an initial public offering. This IPO could value the business at more than $4 billion.
Falguni Nayar worked for many years as an investment banker and guided the successful journeys of several Indian companies to stock market debuts through roadshows in the U.S and Europe. Today Falguni Nayar is etching the grand debut of her own startup Nykaa to a historic initial public offering.
Falguni Nayar understood the importance of a motivating business mission from the founders of companies she worked with as an investment banker. She grabbed the opportunity of delving into India’s beauty market. This is a niche that hasn’t seen many players. Nayar wanted to not just offer a wide array of beauty products online to women.
Though the brand started with just about 60 daily orders at launch, it has grown by leaps and bounds today. The company stocks up and offers over 2,500 brands of almost every beauty product imaginable. Nykaa also customizes beauty products keeping Indian skin types, skin tones, and local weather in mind. Nykaa offers its products through its websites, apps, and also through its 70-plus brick-and-mortar stores. Nykaa hit roughly 24.5 billion rupees ($330 million) in revenue and other income this year. Despite the challenges, which the company faced due to the Covid-19 pandemic restrictions, its revenue rose by more than 35%. Nykaa has now expanded to three other separate apps, including an app for men’s products.
If the IPO of Nykaa goes as planned, this startup company will be the first women-led unicorn in India to go public. At the moment, Nayar owns about half of Nykaa with her husband and their twin children. If the startup manages to reach or surpass the initial projections, the value of Nayar and her family’s stake could exceed well over $2 billion.
“We still have ways to go,” said Nayar.
