Nykaa
Nykaa is an Indian e-commerce company, founded by Falguni Nayar in 2012 and headquartered in Mumbai. It sells beauty, wellness and fashion products across websites, mobile apps and 84 offline stores. In 2020, it became the first Indian unicorn startup headed by a woman. Nykaa sells products which are manufactured in India as well as internationally. In 2015, the company expanded from online-only to an omnichannel model and began selling products apart from beauty. As of 2020, it retails over 2,000 brands and 200,000 products across its platforms. In March 2022, Nykaa made it to TIME's  List of 100 Most Influential Companies of the year 2022. History. Falguni Nayar, a former managing director at Kotak Mahindra Capital Company, founded Nykaa in April 2012. It was launched as an ecommerce portal curating a range of beauty and wellness products. The brand name Nykaa is derived from the Sanskrit word "nayaka", meaning actress or "one in the spotlight". The website was first launched around Diwali 2012, and was available commercially in 2013. In 2015, the company expanded from online-only to an omnichannel model and began selling fashion products. In October 2020, the company launched Nykaa Man, India 's first multi-brand ecommerce store for men's grooming. The company expanded into fashion by launching Nykaa Design Studio, which was renamed to Nykaa Fashion. In 2020, Nykaa launched Nykaa PRO. It is a premium membership program that provides users special access to professional beauty products and offers via the Nykaa App. In Dec 2020, Nykaa Fashion launched its first store in Delhi, making the fashion business omnichannel. Fundraising and IPO. Since 2012, Nykaa has raised money through multiple rounds of funding. In March 2020, it raised from Steadview Capital, thus making it a unicorn startup valued at . This  was followed by another tranche of funding by Steadview in May 2020. Two Bollywood actress invested in the company through secondary funding. Katrina Kaif invested in the company in 2018, and Alia Bhatt invested in July 2020. In November 2020, global asset management firm Fidelity invested in the company through a secondary sale of shares from an existing equity investor. Nykaa opened its initial public offering (IPO) on 28 October 2021 with a price band of 1,085-1,125 per share. The IPO was oversubscribed 81.78 times, raising at a valuation of 7.4 billion. Nykaa was publicly listed on the NSE  and BSE on 10 November 2021, and its price rose by 89.2% on opening day, valuing the company at nearly 13 billion. Founder Falguni Nayar, who owned a 53.5% stake in the company, became India's wealthiest self-made female billionaire. Operations and services. Nykaa follows an inventory-based model with warehouses in Mumbai, New Delhi, Pune, Haryana, Kolkata and Bangalore. In 2020, in addition to its primary ecommerce business, it has an offline presence via 76 brick-and-mortar stores across the country. It claims to have over 200,000 products across 2,000 brands. It has three offline store formats  called Nykaa Luxe, Nykaa On Trend and Nykaa beauty Kiosks. The Luxe format features international luxury beauty brands such as Huda Beauty, MAC, Dior, and Givenchy along with Nykaa Beauty, the in-house collection of beauty products. The Nykaa On Trend format has products curated by category basis their popularity. In India, Nykaa is the only retailer that sells international brands like e.l.f, Charlotte Tilbury, Tonymoly, Becca, Sigma, Limecrime, Dermalogica, and Murad. House of brands. Nykaa has a series of in-house brands within beauty and fashion. Some of them include: In 2015, Nykaa launched its collection of in-house  beauty products via Nykaa Cosmetics and later expanded it across categories of Eyes, Nails, Face, Lips. The Nykaa Naturals portfolio is a collection of skincare and personal care products. In early 2019, the brand launched its Wanderlust Bath & Body collection, and later in the year introduced a beauty line with the iconic designer Masaba Gupta, Masaba by Nykaa. Partnerships and acquisitions. In May 2019, Nykaa acquired 20Dresses.com, a private women's styling platform. The same year, it launched its first celebrity partnership brand, Kay Beauty, with actress Katrina Kaif. In 2021, Nykaa Fashion acquired the India fashion jewellery brand, Pipa  Bella. In 2022, Nykaa acquired an 18.51% stake in beauty brand Earth Rhythm. Earth Rhythm is an Indian skincare brand that aims to deliver smart and safe skincare products. 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. Consequently, the company fixed the security vulnerability. Content platforms. Nykaa also hosts beauty and fashion content via  Nykaa TV, its YouTube channel. It contains informational videos about beauty, cosmetics, and styling. Some of its notable campaigns include #BreakTheHashtag (with Tapsee Pannu), #WhatMakesYourBeautiful (with acid attack survivor and activist Laxmi Agarwal), Beauty in Her Story (in collaboration with Netflix), web series Tinderella, Khoj (a Mother's Day film), and Rakshak (a Raksha Bandhan special film). Since 2018, it has been hosting an online community of beauty and fashion enthusiasts via its Nykaa Network. In 2020, it launched a web miniseries called The Beauty Bar. Nykaa also hosts Beauty Book, a beauty and fashion magazine. Corporate social responsibility. Nykaa  extends social and financial help to causes such as education, health, women's rights and empowerment, rural development, and disaster management. Some of its notable CSR partnerships are with SPARSH India, CARE International Confederation, PRIDE, Milaap, Nanhi Kali, Make a Wish Foundation, Benefactory, Sneha, GiveIndia, and PM CARES Fund. Activities. Since 2015, Nykaa has hosted the ‘Nykaa Femina Beauty Awards’ in partnership with women's lifestyle magazine "Femina (India)". In 2019, Nykaa Fashion launched ‘The Power List’ in partnership with "Vogue India".