Nykaa founder Falguni Nayar is India's richest woman : Mapping her journey from investment banker to entrepreneur

Nykaa founder Falguni Nayar is now India's richest woman, according to the IIFL Wealth Hurun India Rich List 2022. The list which was released on Wednesday placed Nayar at the 33rd spot in the top 100 billionaires list.

As per the list, Mukesh Ambani is no longer the richest man in India, falling second to Gautam Adani who added Rs 5 lakh crore to his wealth last year to bag the coveted spot and is now the richest Indian. However, despite falling short by Rs 3 lakh crore to be the richest Indian, Mukesh Ambani’s wealth grew 11 per cent last year. His wealth is at Rs 7.94 lakh crore, whereas Adani’s wealth stands at Rs 10.94 lakh crore.

Of Nayar, the report says: “With the successful listing of the beauty and wellness e-commerce platform Nykaa, Falguni Nayar overtakes ‘Biotech Queen’ Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw to become the richest self-made Indian woman in the IIFL Wealth Hururn India Rich List 2022.”

‘India’s richest self-made woman billionaire’

Back in November last year, when FSN E-Commerce Ventures Limited — Nykaa’s parent company —had a blockbuster listing and made a dream debut in the stock markets, Falguni Nayar became one of the 20 richest people in the country, India’s richest self-made woman billionaire and was counted among the world’s richest women.

Ahead of her company’s listing on the NSE, 59-year-old Nayar had said, “I started Nykaa at the age of 50 with no experience. I hope the Nykaa journey can inspire each of you to be the Nykaa of your lives.” She owns almost half of Nykaa’s shares and is now worth $6.5 billion, considering the shares of her company surged to 89 per cent as they started trading on the day.

The Nykaa story

Nayar started building Nykaa in 2012 when she was months shy of turning 50. Despite having been a banker for pretty much her entire career, Nayar took to entrepreneurship like fish to water. This, according to a 2017 interview with The Economic Times, was because of her roots. She was born and raised in a Gujarati family with her father running a small bearings company, assisted by her mother. So, the household chatter revolved around investments, the stock market and trade. “Plus, I’m Gujarati," she had said in the interview, indicating that running a business was in her blood.

When she started the venture, Nykaa was funded entirely by Falguni and her husband Sanjay Nayar (the chairman of private equity major KKR & Co. in India), in its early years as the focus was on building an inventory-led business. In her own words, “The company ran on family funds for two years because I didn't want to raise money. I wanted to make the metrics happen. We had good momentum by the time I went to investors. We had access since my husband and I were both bankers.”

Needless to say, a decade since it was launched, Nykaa has become one of the most popular online platforms for beauty and personal care (BPC) products, besides offering an omnichannel experience through its physical stores and the Luxe branding, focusing on the luxury market segment.

Banking her way to the top

A commerce graduate, Falguni Nayar pursued her Master’s in Business Administration from the prestigious Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. After a few stints in the corporate sector, she joined Kotak Mahindra Capital Co. in 1993 as an investment banker. It turned out be a long-term tryst, accounting for the bulk of her career. After 19 years, she was the managing director and head of its institutional equities business, when she decided to quit her job in 2012 to start her entrepreneurial journey with Nykaa.