Falguni Nayar The Naykaa: An Indian Beauty Story (Image: LinkedIn.com)
Falguni Nayar is her own Naykaa, Indian billionaire businesswoman, the founder and CEO of lifestyle and retail brand Nykaa. Nayka translates to the one in limelight, or the ‘nayaka’ of the story.
It all began in the year 2012, when she quit her job at the age of 50, only to begin to drive her dream. In April, that year she founded Nykaa, with her own $2 million which in 2021 shot up to $2.3 billion. Nykaa launched its IPO in 2021, FSN E-Commerce Ventures, which is Nykaa’s parent company, became India’s first women-led unicorn to be listed on the stock market and thereafter went public with Nayar’s fortune rising and Nayar becoming one of the two self-made female billionaires (Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, being the other). She also ranked in the Forbes India rich list at 44.
Falguni was born and brought up in Mumbai. Her father ran a small bearings company with her mother assisting him. This background provided her childhood with conversations around Commerce and business, also about the markets – stock markets. Many times she has mentioned this as a part of her business credentials, and proudly adds her origins as a Gujarati.
Nayar, a former investment banker, is a B.Com degree holder from the University of Mumbai and further, went ahead to IIM Ahmedabad. Before, Nykaa, Nayar was at at A. F. Ferguson and Co as consultant and then at Kotak Mahindra Capital Co. for 18 years. In the initial days, she worked with the mergers and acquisition team, later went to London and New York to work on institutional equities and returned to India in 2001. Then she was appointed as the Managing Director of Kotak Mahindra Capital in 2005 and in 2012, she decided to be on her own with Nykaa. She resigned the company and decided to plunge herself into her Nykaa. The only things that could have made her walk away from an established professional life at the age of 50 could have been her exemplary confidence on her own-self, determination and an undying dream stuttering about for release.
Nykaa had begun with 60 orders a day in 2012, never considered lowering the rates of her products, she has said that they would rather sell their lipsticks at full price than sell a wrong shade at half the price, meaning to say that the company believed in delivering the real, original stuff. Over the years, she has worked extensively to bring her outlets on offline mode too where people could walk in, at the same time improving the online presence. The company’s marquee investors include U.S. private equity giant TPG Growth and billionaires Harsh Mariwala and Harry Banga.
On Nykaa and her work in her own words, “I wanted to stand for those women who want to be beautiful for themselves, not for men or other women.” Truly a business platform which has strong roots and robust dedication. Nykaa is one of the top multi brand platforms in bringing luxury and premier brands to India and serves them up on a plate their Indian customers. It is brand that India has never seen before.
On personal front, she is married to Sanjay Nayar, who is the CEO of Kohlberg Kravis Roberts India. They met at a business school and married in the year 1987. They have twin children, Adwaita and Anchit, who are with the Nykaa family, Adwaita is the CEO of Nykaa Fashion and Anchit heads the retail and e-commerce divisions of the company.
Nayar credits her focus on statistics which has been a part of her and with her given background, she sees it as her secret ingredient to making her way. Nykaa is India’s largest and unique platform for premium brands, which has made strides and won alongside global e commerce platforms. Her success story, along with her seat with the big players of Indian tech Unicorn Founders of which, over 90% of them are men, is truly a story which resonates with every aspiring women of the world.
(Source: Forbes, Financial Express)
