Beauty e-commerce platform Nykaa’s founder Falguni Nayar has become the richest self-made Indian, according to IIFL Wealth Hurun India Rich List 2022
IIFL Wealth Hurun India Rich List 2022: Beauty e-commerce platform Nykaa’s founder Falguni Nayar has become the richest self-made Indian, according to IIFL Wealth Hurun India Rich List 2022 released on Wednesday.
“With the successful listing of the beauty and wellness e-commerce platform Nykaa, Falguni Nayar overtakes ‘Biotech Queen’ Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw to become the richest self-made Indian woman in the IIFL Wealth Hururn India Rich List 2022,” the report mentioned.
Nayar is also the richest female in the country, followed by Rekha Jhunjhunwala of Rare Enterprises, the company incorporated by her husband and late veteran investor Rakesh Jhunjhunwala.
Falguni Nayar & family’s wealth rose Rs 30,000 crore during the year and her cumulative wealth increased 345 per cent and stood around Rs 38,700 crore, data suggested.
On the list, among the top 10 gainers in terms of wealth addition, Nayar stood at the fifth spot and was the only female. She followed the likes of Gautam Adani, Mukesh Ambani, and Cyrus S Poonawalla.
“I started Nykaa at the age of 50 with no experience. I hope the Nykaa journey can inspire each of you to be the Nykaa of your lives,” she said ahead of her company’s listing on the National Stock Exchange (NSE). Falguni Nayar, who owns almost half of Nykaa’s shares is now worth $6.5 billion as shares of her company surged to 89 per cent as they started trading on the day.
In 2012, Nayar, who was just months away from turning 50, came up with the idea of Nykaa — which was aimed at providing beauty products to women and men in the country online. Back then, Indians mostly relied on smaller, neighbourhood stores to buy beauty products. With the launch of Nykaa, cosmetics and skincare products were just a phone tap away and the range of options increased drastically with the introduction of international brands and those which were never heard of.
The list also saw new entrants from the startup ecosystem. These include Physicswallah’s Co-founders Alakh Pandey and Prateek Boob, and Zepto’s Co-founder Kaivalya Vohra, who becomes the youngest entrepreneur to enter the list at the age of 19. Both edtech firm Physicswallah and Y Combinator-backed Zepto raised millions of dollars to enter the unicorn club.
“India also gave a new number two, Gautam Adani, to the Hurun Global Rich List,” said Anas Rahman Junaid, MD and Chief Researcher, Hurun India, in a release shared by the company.
“The unprecedented wealth creation in the past five years in India, when other countries are stalling and are in a recessionary mode, reaffirms India as the ‘engine of growth for the global economy. The new additions to the list have occurred at a time when valuations are at a low, both in the listed and privately held companies. The number of entrants to the list has increased by 60% in the past five years,” he added.
