INDIA'S RICHEST SELF MADE BILLIONAIRE

Falguni Nayar, an investment banker turned entrepreneur, has become India’s newest billionaire after floating her beauty and fashion company on the Mumbai stock exchange. With a worth of Rs 58,635 CRORE following her beauty business’s market debut, Falguni Nayar has joined India's billionaire club. No one who knows the middle-class Gujarati girl who aced IIM, had a long successful banking career, and then took a giant leap into a new, unknown field at 50 is surprised.

FSN, the parent company of her Nykaa brand, hit a valuation of US$13.5 billion in the first five minutes of trade on Wednesday, taking Nayar’s net worth to almost US$7 billion.

Not only did that catapult the 58-year-old onto the list of the country’s 20 wealthiest people, it also made her India’s richest self-made female, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Born into a family that ran a ball bearings company, Nayar has entrepreneurship in her blood. She recalled in a television interview once how conversations at home revolved around investments, stock options and trading.

After finishing her MBA, Nayar spent 18 years at one of India’s leading investment companies, Kotak Mahindra Capital, where she was managing director and head of its institutional equities business. She left the company in 2012 to launch Nykaa (Hindi for “actress”), which now ranks among India’s 52 unicorns, or companies with a market valuation of US$1 billion.

The e-commerce platform started by selling beauty and personal care products via its mobile app and website. It has since grown to become India’s leading beauty and fashion retailer, selling over 4,000 items – from exfoliation creams to lipsticks and nail polish – from 80 stores across 40 Indian cities.

Nayar says her wish is for her story to be an example for others, especially women. On listing day, as those numbers zoomed, the 58-year-old said: “For everyone across India who has ever had a dream, especially women, I hope the Nykaa journey — an Indian-born, owned and managed dream come true — can inspire each of you to be the Nykaa of your lives.”