Nykaa is India's largest specialist beauty retailer. It built its reputation by holding its own inventory and buying from brands directly, which reassured shoppers worried about fakes and won over prestige labels. It now combines apps serving 60 million+ customers, 324 stores and a growing set of owned brands, and passed $1 billion in revenue in FY2026. The company is headquartered in Mumbai, India. Nykaa was founded in April 2012 in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India, by former Kotak Mahindra investment banker Falguni Nayar to bring genuine, multi-brand beauty and personal care products to Indian consumers through an authentic inventory-led e-commerce and omnichannel retail model.
Nykaa earns most of its money by buying beauty and personal care products from brands and reselling them at a margin through its app, website and stores. On top of that it earns commissions in Nykaa Fashion (largely a marketplace), higher margins on its own brands, advertising fees from brands that promote products on its platform, and wholesale margins from Superstore by Nykaa, its B2B app for small retailers and salons.