Falguni Nayar

Falguni Nayar founded Nykaa in 2012 with the vision of building a multi-brand omnichannel beauty-focused retail business. By empowering customer choices and enabling brands to reach the breadth and depth of the country, Nykaa has emerged as India’s leading beauty retailer playing a critical role in developing the beauty market in India. Today, heading a team of over 1600 Nykaa-ites, Falguni has built a beauty and lifestyle retail empire with a portfolio of 1500+ brands, including its own private label, available online and across 68 stores in India. Nykaa’s revenue exceeded Rs. 1200 crores in revenue in FY19 and is on track to exceed Rs. 2000 crores in FY20. Nykaa has ventured into new verticals like Nykaa Fashion - a fashion first, style led curated fashion platform. After graduating from IIM Ahmedabad, Falguni started her career in consulting with A.F. Ferguson & Co. She then spent 18 years at the Kotak Mahindra Bank, helming several businesses and was the Managing Director of Kotak Mahindra Investment Bank, and was director at Kotak Securities – the bank’s institutional equities division. Falguni has received many accolades throughout her career. She was awarded the ‘Woman Ahead’ award at the Economic Times Startup Awards 2017. In the last year alone, recognising her contribution to the Indian beauty industry, Falguni was awarded the Businesswoman of the Year at the Economic Times Awards for Corporate Excellence 2019. She was also listed as one of Asia's Power Businesswomen 2019 by Forbes Asia and named Businessperson of the Year 2019 by Vogue India. Most recently, she was awarded EY Entrepreneur of The Year 2019 – Start-up Award by Ernst and Young. She is on the board of several companies, including ACC, Dabur, Endurance Group and Tata Technologies.