Nykaa

Nykaa is an Indian lifestyle retailer of beauty, wellness, and fashion products that was founded by Falguni Nayar in 2012.

Nykaa
TypePrivate
IndustryEcommerce
Founded2012
FounderFalguni Nayar
HeadquartersMumbai, Maharashtra, India
Area served
India
ServicesOnline shopping
(cosmetics)
WebsiteNykaa.com

Nykaa has multiple ecommerce platforms across websites and mobile apps and also has offline stores. It is a unicorn startup, and as of 2020, was valued at US$1.2 billion.

History

Falguni Nayar, a former managing director at Kotak Mahindra Capital Company, founded Nykaa in 2012. It was launched as an ecommerce portal curating a range of beauty and wellness products.[1][2] The brand name Nykaa is derived from the Sanskrit word nayaka, meaning ‘one in the spotlight’.[3]

In 2015, the company expanded from online-only to an omnichannel model and began selling fashion products.[4][5]

Funding

Since 2012, Nykaa has raised money through multiple rounds of funding.[6][7][8] In March 2020, it raised INR 100 crore from Steadview Capital, thus making it a unicorn startup valued at US$ 1.2 billion.[9][10][11] This was followed by another tranche of INR 67 crore funding by Steadview in May 2020.[12]

In October 2020, Bollywood actresses Alia Bhatt and Katrina Kaif invested undisclosed amounts in the company through secondary funding.[13] In November later that year, global asset management firm Fidelity invested in the company through a secondary sale of shares from an existing equity investor.[14]

Operations and services

Nykaa follows an inventory-based model with warehouses in Mumbai, New Delhi, and Bangalore. In addition to its primary ecommerce business, it has an offline presence via 68 brick-and-mortar stores across the country. It claims to have over 3 lakh products across 1,500 brands.[15][8]

It has two offline store formats called Nykaa Luxe and Nykaa On Trend. The Luxe format features Indian and international luxury beauty brands along with Nykaa Beauty, the in-house collection of beauty products. The latter format has products curated by category basis their popularity.[16]

In 2015, Nykaa launched its collection of in-house beauty products.[17] In March 2016, it introduced private labeled products in the bath and body care category.[18]

Security and privacy issues

On 18 November 2019, an API flaw was detected in Nykaa Fashion’s internal systems that allowed a potential attacker to log in to any user account if the attacker had access to the user's email ID. This could potentially have put users' data at risk of being hijacked.[19][20] Consequently, the company fixed the security vulnerability.[19]

Activities

Nykaa hosts the ‘Nykaa Femina Beauty Awards’ in partnership with women’s lifestyle magazine Femina (India) since 2015.[21]

In 2019, Nykaa Fashion launched ‘The Power List’ in partnership with Vogue India. In October 2019, it partnered with Bollywood actress Katrina Kaif to launch the brand Kay Beauty.[22][23]

References
  1. Kapur, Mallika (24 March 2017). "Falguni Nayar: The beauty entrepreneur". Live Mint. Retrieved 2 April 2020.
  2. "Shades in Beauty Space: Falguni Nayar". Economictimes.indiatimes.com. Retrieved 7 March 2013.
  3. "Who are we | Nykaa". www.nykaa.com.
  4. "Nykaa reveales its omni-channel content and guided selling strategy - ET BrandEquity". ETBrandEquity.com.
  5. Lall, Pavan (19 April 2019). "Nykaa bets big on fashion, offline stores with eye on Unicorn tag" – via Business Standard.
  6. "Max Ventures and Industries acquires 2% stake in Nykaa". Timesofindia.indiatimes.com.
  7. "Steadview funding values Nykaa at $1.2bn - Times of India". The Times of India.
  8. "Nykaa enters unicorn club with fresh Rs 100-crore funding". 2 April 2020.
  9. Sai, Ishwar (1 April 2020). "Nykaa raises Rs 100 crore from existing investor Steadview Capital". Business Standard. Retrieved 1 April 2020.
  10. https://www.financialexpress.com/industry/nykaa-enters-unicorn-club-with-fresh-rs-100-crore-funding/1916533/
  11. https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india-business/steadview-funding-values-nykaa-at-1-2bn/articleshow/74921497.cms
  12. https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/small-biz/startups/newsbuzz/steadview-capital-invests-rs-67-crore-more-in-nykaa/articleshow/75640420.cms
  13. https://www.businessinsider.in/business/startups/news/after-katrina-kaif-alia-bhatt-invests-in-e-commerce-unicorn-nykaa/articleshow/78888581.cms
  14. https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/funding/fidelity-invests-undisclosed-sum-in-nykaa/articleshow/79427130.cms
  15. "Nykaa decks up to woo Indian beauty market with more products and services". Economictimes.indiatimes.com.
  16. "Nykaa to expand offline presence". Deccanherald.com.
  17. "Nykaa expects private label revenue contribution to double in 2017-18". Livemint.com.
  18. Verma, Shrutika (9 March 2016). "Nykaa looks to raise Rs 100 crore, expand private label offerings". Livemint.com. Retrieved 29 June 2018.
  19. "Nykaa fixes a data security bug". Economic Times. Retrieved 3 December 2019.
  20. "Flaws in code put customer data of four consumer internet platforms at risk". Live Mint. Retrieved 3 December 2019.
  21. "Nykaa and Femina host the Nykaa Femina Beauty Awards in Mumbai". Timesofindia.indiatimes.com.
  22. Bhattacharya, Ananya. "Nykaa was an obvious choice for Katrina Kaif over Amazon and Flipkart". Quartz India.
  23. "Katrina Kaif finally reveals her much-awaited makeup line on Instagram". Vogue India.
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