Falguni Sanjay Nayar is an Indian entrepreneur, the self-made billionaire founder and former CEO of Nykaa (NSE: NYKAA), the dominant beauty and lifestyle e-commerce platform in India. Born in Mumbai, Maharashtra, in 1963, into a Gujarati family, her father ran a small bearings company, instilling an early fascination with business.

Nayar secured an elite education, graduating with a B.Com. from Sydenham College and securing a postgraduate degree from the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (IIM-A) in 1985. Her career was a highly successful 19-year tenure in investment banking at Kotak Mahindra Group, where she became the Managing Director of the investment banking unit and led mergers and acquisitions (M&A). This background provided her with the crucial financial expertise to launch her disruptive e-commerce venture.

Falguni Nayar's entrepreneurial act was audacious: she quit her successful investment banking career in 2012 and founded Nykaa at the age of 50 with $2 million of her own money. Her strategic vision was to build a multi-brand, omni-channel platform that would provide a curated selection of beauty and wellness products, capitalizing on the explosion of Indian digital consumption.

Under her leadership as CEO, Nykaa scaled exponentially, growing into the dominant platform in the massive Indian beauty market. The company achieved a landmark $13 billion valuation upon its IPO on the NSE in 2021, making Nayar the wealthiest self-made Indian woman and India's first female tech billionaire. She successfully transitioned control of key divisions to her twin children, Adwaita Nayar (CEO of Nykaa Fashion) and Anchit Nayar (head of retail and e-commerce), ensuring the generational continuity of the empire.

Falguni Nayar's social impact is structural, stemming from Nykaa's role in driving the digital transformation of the Indian beauty retail industry and creating a massive platform for consumer consumption. She is one of only two major self-made female Indian billionaires, providing immense inspiration for female entrepreneurship across the nation.

Her structural contribution is tied to her successful transition from finance to technology, proving that deep domain expertise and a late-career risk can lead to global financial success.

Falguni Nayar maintains the professional, composed style of a financial executive and e-commerce leader. Her attire is consistently high-quality, favoring tailored business suits and elegant Indian attire. Her aesthetic is one of confident, data-driven authority, reflecting her IIM-A and Kotak Mahindra background.

Residing in Mumbai, Maharashtra, her luxury is the immense security and autonomy derived from her multi-billion dollar fortune. Her life is dedicated to the core mission of Nykaa—providing a trusted, curated beauty and lifestyle platform—and her commitment to female entrepreneurship.