Nykaa Founder, India’s Wealthiest Self-Made Female Billionaire!

India’s e-commerce company, Nykaa which sells beauty, wellness and fashion products online and 76 offline stores across the country, hit the Stock Exchange with its Initial Public Offering (IPO) and the response has been phenomenal.

Established in the year 2012, Nykaa went on to become the country’s leading beauty retailer and it reported sales worth $330 million in the year ended in March. With Nykaa’s IPO making it to the business headlines, the focus shifted on its founder, Falguni Nayar. Just before turning 50, she founded Nykaa and the 58 year old is now worth $6.5 billion with shares of Nykaa surging by 89 percent after the IPO.

Falguni is now India’s self-made billionaire after Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw (Biocon) and Divya Gokulnath (Byju’s) while Savitri Jindal of OP Jindal Group is the nation’s wealthiest woman. Falguni also surpassed the likes of the Muthoot family of Muthoot Finance, Marico founder Harsh Mariwala and Abhay Vakil of Asian Paints.

A Gujarat born, Falguni went to IIM – Ahmedabad and before founding Nykaa, she worked with Kotak Mahindra Bank for 19 long years. She quit Kotak at the peak of her professional career with intentions to build her own company. In 2012 when Falguni’s kids left to the US for higher education, she worked extensively on her entrepreneurship project and that’s how Nykaa shaped up.

Currently Falguni’s son Anchit, a graduate from Columbia University is running the beauty e-commerce business and daughter Adwaita, an MBA from Harvard Business School, is heading the fashion vertical. Sanjay Nayar, husband of Falguni happens to be the CEO of KKR India Financial Services.

Nykaa shares opened at Rs 2,001 on BSE and at NSE, the stock debuted at Rs 2,018. On Wednesday’s close, the shares plunged to Rs 2208 and this is a great start.