Falguni Nayar, the founder of beauty startup Nykaa, has become India's richest self-made female billionaire. According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, shares of online beauty and health product sales platform Nykaa made a strong start in the stock market on Wednesday.
Shares of Nykaa-owned FSN E-commerce Ventures were listed with a hefty premium of over 79 per cent against the issue price of Rs 1,125 on Wednesday. Shares of the company opened at Rs 2,001, jumping 77.86 per cent on the BSE. After this, it increased by 89.24 per cent to Rs 2,129.
It was listed on NSE at Rs 2,018 with a premium of 79.37 per cent. The company's market valuation on BSE stood at Rs 97,754.06 crore. Earlier this month, the initial public offering (IPO) of FSN E-commerce Ventures received 81.78 times more applications.
The price was Rs 1,085-1,125 per share under the Rs 5,352 crore IPO. The website, founded in 2012 by former investment banker Falguni Nayar, and 4,000 beauty, personal care and fashion brands sell goods through its app.
After graduating from IIM Ahmedabad, Falguni did A.F. Ferguson & Co. started her career in Consulting. She worked at Kotak Mahindra Bank for 18 years, headed several businesses and was also the Managing Director of Kotak Mahindra Investment Bank.
Nykaa is a for-profit company. Nayar holds a stake in her company through two family trusts and seven other promoter entities. Her son and daughter run separate Nykaa units. As Nykaa's popularity grew, so did its brand appeal.
Top Bollywood celebrities like Katrina Kaif have also contributed to taking this forward. Nykaa has also built its own brand of products in-house since 2015 and recently started selling clothing and home products. Its street presence is growing with 80 stores across 40 Indian cities.