Falguni Sanjay Nayar was born on 19th February in the year 1963. She is a well-known pioneer and top-achieving woman in the banking sector. She is from Gujarati background but was born and grew up in Mumbai. Her father used to be a merchant, and she claims that perhaps the seed of entrepreneurship was rooted in her mind at an early age.
She has also mentioned that the stock market was a frequent topic of conversation in her home. Falguni attended the Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad, wherein she earned her MBA in Finance. Her father was a renowned figure in the corporate world at that moment. She was employed at A.F. Ferguson & Co. as a business analyst.
She was employed at A.F. Ferguson & Co. as a management consultant. Falguni has more than eighteen years of experience. She held the title of Managing Director in the company, Kotak Mahindra.
Emergence of Nykaa
Falguni’s interest in fashion and fitness ignited a desire to start a business as soon as she turned 50. She recognized that the Indian entrepreneurship scenario will be a huge success in the cosmetics industry.
She started to feel confident and inspired after being led on the correct use of splendour products and talked about which material should be used. She had this experience at multi-brand beauty supply stores like Sephora, and Falguni, while not being a regular buyer of skincare products, was enticed to buy those costing thousands of dollars.
She is the owner and Chief Executive Officer of the e-commerce website ‘Nykaa,’ improving the expectations of Indian elegance. With a net worth of Rs. 1,200 crores, Falguni Nayar is one of the top 10 business entrepreneurs. Nykaa’s most recent funding drive is anticipated to catapult its owner Falguni Nayar into the billionaire category, rendering her India’s second-richest self-made woman.
Nykaa, the startup she launched in 2012 as a shop that sells beauty and fitness items It sells products from over 1200 major labels, including Loreal, Lakme and has distribution in several cities all over India.
It has grown from a multi-brand e-commerce website to a banner under which several companies work. The company name Nykaa is taken from the Sanskrit term ‘nayaka,’ translating to ‘one in the spotlight’.
Nykaa Products
Nykaa, in addition to makeup and cosmetic brands, offers career options for women and aims to inspire women. Nykaa went from difficulties to rising benefit graphs, the lockout situation, and growing as one of the most profitable companies during the pandemic. In the financial year 2019, Nykaa‘s revenue was expected to be about Rs. 1,159.32 crore. What is interesting about this figure is that Nykaa had a loss of Rs. 17.7 crores a year ago; with perseverance, it recovered and quickly reached a profit of Rs. 2.3 crores.
At present, Nykaa sells over a thousand brands, ranging from high-end premium to specialty and trendy favorites, as well as inexpensive, and high-quality products. They have also created our original labels, Nykaa Naturals, Nykaa Cosmetics, and Kay Beauty, with formulas hand-picked by Katrina Kaif, to fill consumer holes in the world. In order to communicate with customers in an omnichannel way, and around the world, Nykaa opened about seventy stores.
Nykaa subsequently increased into apparel in order to fulfill our vision of being a luxury hub for our clients. Today, this has grown to be a large fraction of our market, and we are seeing incredibly rapid growth of this segment. Falguni Nayar is also thrilled to be introducing the legendary Charlotte Tilbury label to India. Customers will benefit from the Charlotte Tilbury beauty and skincare line. The Charlotte Tilbury cosmetics and skincare range will provide shoppers with a new way to express their imagination and explore styles from the beauty wonder herself. Nykaa has a sizable millennial and Generation Z user base, and Lime Crime is the ideal opportunity for them to share their creativity.
Falguni Nayar recently introduced Nykd, a lingerie line, and extended Nykaa Fashion into children’s and men’s clothing. Nykaa Man, our male grooming center, is also expanding, and creating categories to better serve the steadily growing male client base.
Nykaa Funding
The company has raised about $145.9 million in overall investment after ten rounds of collection. On May 8th, 2020, the company’s last funding is reported. The value is $1.2 billion, based on the roughly $13 million earned. Nykaa has been designated as a ‘unicorn startup.’
Alia Bhatt and Katrina Kaif, both Bollywood stars, contributed confidential sums to the firm via secondary investment in October 2020. Afterward that same year, in November, multinational wealth management group Fidelity made an investment in the brand via a secondary stock offering by an established equity owner.
Nykaa Business Model
Offline, the team adheres to the concept of the Business Inventory Model. Warehouses are where the goods are manufactured and processed. They obtain the ingredients directly from the suppliers of cosmetics. Nykaa Luxe and Nykaa on Trend are the two retail, offline stores of Nykaa. The Luxe format includes Indian and foreign premium cosmetics brands, as well as Nykaa Beauty, the in-house cosmetics company range. The latter platform features items that have been selected by category based on their success.
The team operates and markets their beauty and lifestyle goods online on the Nykaa app, offering a fair service charge for leisure items. The Nykaa app can be downloaded easily to browse for the products on the internet.
Awards and Philanthropic Activities
On International Women’s Day 2015, Nykaa generated funds for the project Nanhi Kali which is an NGO in India aiming to provide basic schooling to disadvantaged girls in the country.
Nykaa provides economic and social assistance to initiatives such as literacy, welfare, women’s equality and empowerment, regional development, and relief efforts. CARE, SPARSH India, International Confederation, Milaap, PRIDE, Make a Wish Foundation, Sneha, Benefactor, and PM CARES Fund are among its prominent CSR collaborations.
The Most Innovative E-commerce Company‘ Award was given to Nykaa in 2015 at the eTales Awards event.
The company also bagged the Emerging Retailer of the Year at India’s Retail Champion awards at India’s Retail Champion event organized by the Retailers Association of India in 2021.
Falguni Nayar Has Received the Following Awards for Her Work with Nykaa
- Women Ahead: ET Startup Awards 2017
- India Franchise Health & Beauty Retailer of the Year 2017 at the Star Retailer Awards
- Beauty Game Changer: Vogue Beauty Awards 2017
- India Franchise Women Entrepreneur of the Year 2017 at the Star Retailer Awards
- SAMMIES 2018: Best Social Media Brand – Ecommerce
- 2018’s Most Powerful Women Best Social Media B
- Vogue Beauty Awards 2018
- Best Use of Content to Commerce Content Marketing Summit Asia 2019
- ET Businesswoman of the Year, 2019.
She also wished for the women of India to feel inspired. As per Nykaa.com, the company has recovered over 1500 genuine businesses and provided free shipments. Falguni reported that Nykaa has rapidly risen as India’s top omnichannel glamour destination, with scores of satisfied customers across the country.
