The Journey of Adwaita Nayar: Co-founder and CEO of Nykaa Fashion

 If you are a fan of online shopping for beauty and fashion products, you must have heard of Nykaa. Nykaa is India’s leading online marketplace for beauty products, offering a wide range of brands and categories to cater to every need and preference. But do you know who is behind this successful venture? Meet Adwaita Nayar, the co-founder and CEO of Nykaa Fashion, and the daughter of Nykaa founder Falguni Nayar.

Adwaita Nayar: The journey from New York to Nykaa

Adwaita Nayar was born and raised in Mumbai, where she attended the prestigious Dhirubhai Ambani International School. She had a flair for mathematics and pursued a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in Applied Mathematics from Yale University in the US. She then worked as a consultant at Bain and Company in New York, where she gained valuable experience in strategy, operations and marketing.

In 2012, her mother Falguni Nayar decided to quit her high-paying job as the managing director of Kotak Mahindra Capital Company and start her own online beauty platform, Nykaa. She wanted to create a trusted destination for women to shop for beauty products online, without compromising on quality or authenticity. She also wanted to offer a curated selection of products that suited the Indian skin tone and climate.

Adwaita Nayar decided to join her mother in this entrepreneurial journey and moved back to India. She became the co-founder of Nykaa and took charge of the operations, technology and marketing of the e-commerce business. She also helped in fundraising, customer service and expanding the physical retail footprint of Nykaa from 5 to 35 stores across the country.

Adwaita Nayar: The launch of Nykaa Fashion

In 2018, Adwaita Nayar launched Nykaa Fashion, a separate vertical that focused on online fashion retailing. She wanted to create a platform that offered a curated and personalized shopping experience for women, with a mix of premium and affordable brands. She also wanted to showcase emerging designers and homegrown labels that reflected the diversity and richness of Indian fashion.

Nykaa Fashion is competing with some of the biggest players in the online fashion space, such as Reliance Jiomart, Tata Cliq, Myntra and Amazon. However, Adwaita Nayar has managed to carve a niche for herself by offering a differentiated value proposition to her customers. She has focused on quality over quantity, exclusivity over mass appeal and customer loyalty over discounts.

Nykaa Fashion has also leveraged the strong brand equity and trust that Nykaa has built over the years. It has used data analytics and artificial intelligence to understand customer preferences and offer personalized recommendations. It has also invested in creating engaging content and community building through social media platforms, blogs and podcasts.

Adwaita Nayar: The future plans

Adwaita Nayar has ambitious plans for Nykaa Fashion. She wants to make it the ultimate destination for fashion lovers in India. She also wants to expand into new categories such as men’s wear, kids wear and home decor. She is also exploring opportunities to go global and tap into the huge potential of the Indian diaspora.

Adwaita Nayar is not only a successful entrepreneur but also a role model for many young women who aspire to make their mark in the business world. She has proven that with passion, hard work and innovation, anything is possible. She has also shown that it is possible to balance work and family, as she is happily married to Anubhav Gupta, an investment banker, and has a daughter named Aria.

Adwaita Nayar is the co-founder of Nykaa, which has now become a Rs 41,280 crore business empire. She is also the daughter of Falguni Nayar, who is the richest self-made woman in India. She has a net worth of around Rs 22,000 crore (USD 2.7 billion), according to Forbes.