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The woman-led Unicorn of an E-com Beauty Platform Nykaa : Falguni Nayar

Falguni Nayar

The journey of India’s seventh self-made women billionaire Falguni Nayar, CEO and founder of Nykaa, owns almost half of Nykaa’s shares valuing her stake at $7 billion. “I wanted to stand for women who want to be beautiful for themselves, not for the men or other women” – Falguni Nayar

Thought of Nykaa

Falguni Nayar an Investment Banker got the idea of Nykaa when she visited a Sephora store in the US. She wasn’t a regular customer of beauty products, still invested hundreds of dollars. The sales executive shows her the best products and the best ways to use them. She felt this concept should bring to India to have all these brands in a single store. The name Nykaa took from the Sanskrit word Naykaa, which means actress or “one in the spotlight”. Currently, there are 76 physical stores across the country.

How did she start?

2014 : The first Nykaa store was opened at Indira Gandhi International Airport, Delhi.
Rs 20 crore was raised in seed funding from Indra Banga, Narotam Sekhsaria, and others.
2015 : The company started selling Nyka products apart from beauty and it expanded from online selling to an omnichannel.
2018 : Nykaa Man, India’s first multi-brand e-commerce store for men’s grooming was launched.
2019 : Nykaa acquired a private women’s styling platform 20Dresses.com. With actress Katrina Kaif Nykaa launched its first celebrity partnership brand, Kay Beauty.
2020 : Nykaa launched Nykaa PRO. It provides users special access to beauty Nykaa products and offers using Nykaa App. Nykaa has three offline store formats called Nykaa Luxe, Nykaa on Trend and Nykaa beauty Kiosks.
The Luxe features international luxury beauty brands such as Huda Beauty, MAC, Dior, and Givenchy along with Nykaa Beauty.
The Nykaa On Trend features Nykaa products created by category basis their popularity.
In March Nykaa raised ₹100 crores (US$13 million) from Stead view Capital and became a unicorn startup with a valuation of ₹85 billion (US$1.1 billion).
In May It raises ₹67 crores (US$8.9 million) funding again by Stead view. In OctoberBollywood actresses Alia Bhatt and Katrina Kaif invested in the company.
2021 : Nykaa Fashion acquired the Indian fashion jewellery brand, Pipa Bella and Home décor was added.
She quit her well-established job at the age of 50 to step into an entrepreneurial journey. She founded Nykaa in 2012.

Challenges

As an Investment banker, she was aware of raising funds and investing in the business. She entered a tech-led area and she didn’t have a co-founder from the tech field.
She needed to make a website and create a user experience for customers and get genuine products to the store at genuine prices.
She overcame all the challenges with her hard work and dedication.

Achievements

In 2017 Falguni Nayar got featured as The Most Powerful Women in Business. She won the ‘Woman Ahead’ award at the Economic Times Startup Awards in 2017. Nykaa organized Femina Beauty Awards in 2018 by collaborating with Femina.

Investment of Katrina Kaif & Alia Bhatt

In 2018 Katrina invested 2.02 crores. Her investment came after a year in 2019 she launched her beauty line on the platform, Kay Beauty. After the IPO, her financial investment has boosted to Rs 22 crores. In the same year, Alia invested 4.95 crores. After the IPO’s large success, her financial investment is currently worth Rs 54 crores.

Nykaa makes debut on the stock market

Nykaa made its debut on the stock market on 10 November. 2021. FSN E-Commerce Ventures Ltd, Nykaa’s parent company listed on both the National Stock Exchange (NSE) and Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE). The shares were listed on BSE at a price of Rs 2,120.70, up by 5.98 per cent from the pre-listing price. On NSE, the shares were priced at Rs 2,091.75, rising by 3.65 per cent from the pre- listing price.FSN E-Commerce Ventures Ltd is listed in ‘B’ Group Securities, on the BSE, under the Internet and catalogues retail industry. The pre-open price on NSE was listed as Rs 2,018.00 and on BSE as Rs 2,001.00.
The shares of the company are expected to fetch a good return to investors, with shares of FSN E- Commerce Ventures Ltd fetching a grey market premium of Rs 750.67 on 9 November.
The Initial Public Offering (IPO) of Nykaa received a great response from investors, being subscribed 81.78 times over the 2.64 crore shares on offer from 28 October to 1 November. The shares had a fixed price band of Rs 1,085-1,125 per share in the IPO, with investors bidding in lots of 12 and its multiples.
Bids of 216.59 crores were put in by the investors against the total issue size of 2.64 crore shares. The portion of FSN E-Commerce Ventures Ltd allotted to qualified institutional buyers was subscribed 91.18 times, while the section given to employees was booked 1.88 times. The portion of Nykaa shares allotted to non-institutional investors was subscribed 112.02 times and the portion given to retail individual investors was subscribed 12.24 times, as per the data obtained.