Understanding Nykaa

The beauty e-commerce startup may be a new-age tech business like Zomato or Paytm, but a closer look at the company tells you that it is as traditional as they come.

To be able to legally, legitimately do the inventory model, we stayed away from foreign money and we raised only domestic funding. We have a very differentiated business model and we truly believe in it. In beauty you need to be inventory-led."

That quote, from a 2017 interview, gives a window to Falguni Nayar's entire approach to building Nykaa, the startup that dominates beauty and personal care retail online in India today.

Every prominent e-commerce venture—from the grand successes to the miserable failures—bulked up on external capital, landing them in a morass of regulations around foreign investment in e-commerce. …

Author

Harveen Ahluwalia

Harveen is a co-founder at The Morning Context, and leads our Internet coverage. She has previously worked as a media, consumer and tech reporter at The Ken and Mint. At The Morning Context, she writes on startups, venture capital, consumer and media businesses—from e-commerce to healthtech to streaming.

Editor, Internet

harveen@mailtmc.com

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