Nykaa: The name is enough to excite Indian women & men

by Entrepreneur How · January 4, 2022

Ask any Indian woman about Nykaa, you will definitely get a smile for free! Nykaa is the first eCommerce store that sells only cosmetics, makeup, and other personal care stuff. It’s the amazon of cosmetics products in India. It’s a sensation to Indian women and men. Occasions and festivals seem empty if women do not shop anything from Nykaa. Nykaa is also a journey of a woman. Falguni Nayar has founded Nykaa in 2012. Presently it’s no longer only an eCommerce platform but also Nykaa has launched many physical shops in various states of India. It claims that it gets 1.5 million per month across the country.

Year Founded: 2012

Headquarter: Mumbai, Maharashtra, India

Founders: Falguni Nayar

Website: https://www.nykaa.com/

How did it all start?

It all has begun in 2012 when the founder Falguni Nayar realized that somehow the Indian market is missing the charm of actual cosmetic markets in comparison with France or Japan. Apart from this, having access to international cosmetics and personal care products was the dream of many women due to unavailability in the market. She understood that the demand is high yet the market is somehow unable to connect with end-users and supply what they want. And that’s where she decided to build a bridge and serve the best to Indian women and men.

Falguni Nayar and her husband Sanjay Nayar together have started this online cosmetics, makeup, and personal care product selling platform. Soon after setting an eCommerce platform, she took interest in launching beauty and personal care products from her own brand on the same platform.

Business Model and Revenue Model

Nykaa is different for many reasons. One of them is, it directly buys products from brands and distributors and sells to its consumers. There is a no-third party in the process. In other Ecommerce platform, we can see that third-party sellers listed down products and then a consumer can buy that. But with Nykaa, there is no such chance. When it comes to cosmetics and personal care products, people prefer to buy from a reliable place as it directly deals with skin and hair. Using fake products can leave long-term adverse effects. In order to be 100% sure, people have chosen Nykaa as the best platform.

If we concentrate on the promotion model, we can see that Nykaa is different again. Instead of letting celebrities promote a product, Nykaa prefers to promote it via a next-door girl. Actually, consumers can relate with the next-door girl, not the celebrity. Falguni Nayar said, “ This is different from Kareena Kapoor selling kajal or Aishwarya Rai promoting a shampoo, these are 23-25 years old girls who look and talk like the customer instead of speaking from a pedestal.” And this is simply inspiring many people to buy products from this platform.

Funding

Recently Nykaa IPO has been launched as it was subscribed more than our imagination. The IPO was subscribed 81.78 times over the 2.64 crore shares. Before the IPO, FSN E-commerce Ventures Ltd, the parent company claimed on Oct 27th, 2021 that it has raised 2396 crore from anchor investors. Before November 2020, Fidelity Management and Research company also invested an undisclosed amount for the growth of the platform. In early April 2020, Nykaa got $13 million funding from the existing backer Steadview capital and marked its place in the unicorn club. Apart from these, there are some other investors such as Lighthouse funds, TPG Growth, and so on.