Nykaa's Falguni Nayar becomes India's richest woman, surpasses Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw
Falguni Nayar, the founder of beauty and wellness products e-commerce platform Nykaa, has now become India's richest woman with a net worth of Rs. 38,700 crore, as per the 'IIFL Wealth Hurun India rich list 2022' released on Wednesday. She overtook biopharmaceutical company Biocon founder Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, and grabbed the 33rd spot in the list of top 100 billionaires in India.
Last year, Nykaa grew by 345% to reach Rs. 38,700 crore which took Nayar (59) from the 169th rank to 33rd. Her wealth increased by Rs. 30,000 crore, which also found her the fifth spot among the top ten gainers — she is the only woman in this list which includes Gautam Adani, Mukesh Ambani, and Cyrus Poonawalla.
She is trailed by Rekha Jhunjhunwala, the wife of late business magnate and investor Rakesh Jhunjhunwala, who has a net worth of Rs. 37,200 crore. Further on the list are Smita V Crishna (Rs. 32,000 crore) of the Godrej clan; Radha Vembu (Rs. 30,500 crore), the co-founder of Zoho Corporation; and Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw (Rs. 24,800 crore).
In the list of gainers by proportion or in percentage terms, Nayar is only second to Ravi Modi of Vedant Fashions which owns the brand Manyavar. Modi saw a jump of 376% in his wealth. Among Nykaa's investors are US private equity giant TPG Growth, Harsh Mariwala of Marico, and Harry Banga of Caravel Group, as per a report by The Economic Times.
Nykaa boasts around 4,000 brands online and over 100 brick-and-mortar stores, as per Forbes. In the formative years, she and her husband Sanjay Nayar, chairman of private equity major KKR & Co., funded the venture. The company became a Unicorn in 2020 and went public in 2021. Nykaa is one of the rare profitable startups in India.
