Exactly a year after beauty e-tailer Nykaa raised Rs 100 crore in a fresh round of funding from US-based private equity firm TPG Growth, it has scooped up a similar amount from existing investor Steadview Capital, it said on Tuesday.
Nykaa was founded in 2012 by investment-banker-turned entrepreneur Falguni Nayar, who was a former managing director at Kotak Mahindra Capital.
The online marketplace, run by Nykaa E-retail Pvt Ltd, sells products across categories ranging from skincare, hair care, fragrances, bath and body, and luxury products for both women and men.
The group also operates retail stores such as Nykaa Luxe and Nykaa On Trend via FSN Brands Marketing Pvt Ltd. The parent entity is FSN E-commerce Ventures Pvt Ltd.
Ravi Mehta, founder and CIO of Steadview Capital, said Nykaa’s focus on customer service and capital efficiency stands out in the Indian ecommerce space. “We believe the company is poised for a strong growth trajectory in the years to come,” he added.
Nykaa called Steadview a returning investor even though the private investment firm does not show up in the cap table of Nykaa's parent. This could mean Steadview entered via a secondary share purchase from an existing investor without formally announcing it.
Nykaa’s online platform doubled its sales to Rs 1,159.3 crore and broke even with both operating profit and a net profit for the year ended March 31, 2019. At a group level the consolidated revenues rose to Rs 1,225 crore but the other business units were still in the red, leading to overall net loss of Rs 21 crore even as it is not burning cash any longer with Rs 9.3 crore operating profit.
Besides TPG and Lighthouse, the firm counts several industrialists and their family members as individual shareholders.
TPG, which announced a Rs 100 crore investment last year, is believed to be holding around 3.55% stake in Nykaa valuing the startup at Rs 2,817 crore ($400 million then) a year ago, as per VCCircle estimates.
Avendus Capital was the adviser to Nykaa on the latest transaction.
