The success story of Falguni Nayar, founder of the multi-brand beauty retailer Nykaa, is a testament to the fact that with the right training, education and support women can conquer any height. She has built an empire that started off with a humble beginning, but now stands tall at £20 million!
Falguni, an IIM Ahmedabad alumnus, was the former Managing Director at Kotak Mahindra Capital Company, which she gave up to pursue the dream of becoming an entrepreneur. This choice of leaving a fruitful career behind and entering the world of entrepreneurship was driven by two factors: 1) Her love for makeup, and 2) Her curiosity to explore the online marketing platform which she recognized to have a lot of potential.
She hails from a Gujarati family, but was born and brought up in Mumbai. Her father was a businessman and she says that the seed of business was planted into her mind at a very young age. She also has said that the stock market and trade were common topics of discussion in her house.
After graduating from IIM, Ahmedabad, Falguni spent 19 years working as an investment banker with the Kotak Mahindra group. It was in 2012 that she decided to quit her job at the age of 50 and embarking on an entrepreneurial journey. She was quick to discern that beauty was an untapped market in India and was on the way to experiencing an explosion.
Success story of Falguni
Nykaa was founded in 2012 and the idea came to her when she started feeling confident and empowered at being guided through the right way of using beauty products and being told which are the right products to be used. She got this experience at multi-brand beauty stores like Sephora, and felt attracted to buy those worth hundreds of dollars owing to the right guidance. She felt the need to replicate this India. She also wanted the women of India to feel empowered.
Nykaa is primarily an e-commerce website that offers beauty and wellness products from all the leading brands. It has its offline presence in 17 stores and is expanding. It has over 850+ curated brands and 35,000 products. With Falguni at the helm of Nykaa’s journey, the brand is sure to see more and more success in the coming years.
