Nykaa’s Founder Looks Established To Turn into A Billionaire And India’s 2nd-Richest Self-Designed Woman

As the Covid-19 pandemic stifled enterprises from airlines to tourism, Nykaa, an online retailer of natural beauty merchandise, was sitting down very. Hordes of buyers, trapped at home because of to pandemic-imposed constraints, flocked to its digital cabinets, getting up almost everything from pores and skin creams to lipsticks. Thanks to this gross sales surge, Nykaa expects to report a 40% rise in income for the 12 months ending March 2021, up from $247 million in March 2020.

The cosmetics retailer, which counts Boston asset management enterprise Fidelity Management and non-public fairness organization TPG Advancement Money among its investors, is prepping for an IPO this year that’s envisioned to value it at all around $3 billion. But even in advance of that comes about, Nykaa’s most recent funding round, which is envisioned to shut by the end of this thirty day period, is likely to propel its founder Falguni Nayar into the billionaire ranks, creating her India’s 2nd-richest self-produced girl immediately after biopharma billionaire Kiran Mazumdar Shaw.

Nayar, who owns a minor far more than 50% of the magnificence retailer, would not remark on her web well worth or the fund-elevating.  

The Indian elegance and particular treatment market place is predicted to develop to $23 billion by 2023 from $13 billion in 2018, according to Gurgaon-based mostly consulting business Technopak, which states it will be boosted by increasing incomes of younger Indians.

“Nykaa has turn into synonymous with splendor solutions,” states Saloni Nangia, president of  Technopak. “It spotted the proper craze due to the fact we hardly ever had a consolidated attractiveness perform in India right before. There have been normally numerous formats, but they were all smaller-scale.”

Nayar, a previous banker, commenced Nykaa at age 49, soon after quitting her position as head of Kotak Mahindra bank’s financial commitment banking arm in 2012. With $2 million as seed cash from family savings, she imagined the time was ripe for an Indian variation of Sephora, the worldwide cosmetics chain.

Starting off off as an on the net retailer, Nykaa, which is derived from the Sanskrit phrase “Nayaka,” which means one particular who’s in the spotlight, expanded later on into brick and mortar stores. The business now has 70 stores throughout 34 towns and its web page and app attract 60 million month to month website visitors.

Nykaa disrupted India’s splendor market by advertising luxury models these types of as Clinique and Bobbi Brown on the net. By sourcing solutions immediately from authorized distributors, Nykaa constructed a track record of high quality and authenticity in a sector rife with spurious cosmetics. The on the net model authorized Nayar to build an limitless aisle of products from across the globe, Nykaa at present presents more than 700,000 items.

Nayar has shunned discounting and employed advertising and marketing tactics such as splendor blogs by influencers who present updates on new items and trends. Knowing that clients like to contact and truly feel and try on cosmetics just before obtaining them, she added bricks to clicks, opening the initially Nykaa keep in Delhi in 2015.

Nykaa, which turned a unicorn past year, has so much elevated a whole of $70 million in main funding from marquee traders, which include purchaser goods billionaire Harsh Mariwala and commodities billionaire Harindarpal “Harry” Banga.

“It has been extraordinary seeing Nayar transition seamlessly from 1 of India’s main investment bankers to a phenomenal entrepreneur in the magnificence, manner and engineering room,” says Angad Banga, son of Harry Banga, whose Hong Kong-based family office retains a 10% stake in Nykaa. (Angad applied to do the job at KKR with Nayar’s husband Sanjay Nayar, who heads the American non-public equity firm’s India device.)

Nayar’s entrepreneurial journey has been much from smooth. She faced a major discovering curve as she navigated the worlds of attractiveness, tech and retail. A few main technology officers stop in the first 4 yrs. Even with remaining a banking veteran, fund-raising was a challenge initially—a considerably cry from the current circumstance that sees Nayar remaining wooed by financial investment banks seeking to checklist her company.

Today, she’s also experiencing off a raft of competition, this sort of as department keep chain Purchasers End, managed by billionaire Chandru Raheja, and Amazon, which has crafted a formidable on line existence in India. But Nayar, whose loved ones has often supported her splendor undertaking, has the two her 30-12 months-previous twins performing with her. Son Anchit heads the on-line business and daughter Adwaita, who applied to be Nykaa’s main running officer, is CEO of its rapid-growing garments retailer Nykaa Trend.

To include excitement to its choices, Nykaa solid a joint venture with Bollywood actress Katrina Kaif termed Kay Magnificence in 2019, to offer you a new cosmetics line. Technopak’s Nangia predicts that India’s booming elegance business enterprise isn’t waning at any time soon.

“Digital acceleration introduced about by Covid-19 is here to continue to be,” she states. “All attractiveness products and wellness corporations are likely to benefit.” Nayar will have to get employed to getting in the spotlight.