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Partnership · Commerce & Consumer Brands

Nykaa and L’Oréal’s BOLD partner to back Indian beauty startups

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Nykaa logo
Date
Company
Nykaa
What it does
Beauty and fashion retail platform
Kind
Partnership
Based in
Mumbai
Founded
2012
Sector
Commerce & Consumer Brands

What they do

Nykaa operates a digital-first retail network across India offering beauty, personal care, wellness, and fashion products to millions of consumers

What happened

Nykaa and L’Oréal’s corporate venture fund BOLD announced a collaboration to jointly invest in emerging beauty and personal care brands

Why it matters

The partnership will acquire minority stakes in high-growth startups, providing founders with capital, mentorship, and access to global retail expertise

The details

  • Retailer Nykaa has formed an alliance with BOLD (Business Opportunities for L’Oréal Development), which acts as the corporate investment vehicle for beauty conglomerate L’Oréal.
  • The newly formed venture plans to pour funds into fast-expanding domestic personal care, wellness, and cosmetic startups showing robust consumer demand.
  • Both entities will secure minority stakes in selected early-stage enterprises via purely monetary investments.
  • Creators of the supported firms will maintain total equity ownership, managing their operations autonomously with existing staff and creative strategies.
  • Apart from financial backing, the collaborators will supply strategic mentorship, guidance, and industry connections.
  • This alliance merges L’Oréal’s international cosmetic knowledge with Nykaa’s physical and digital marketplace infrastructure.

The bigger picture

  • The initiative aims to help ambitious Indian beauty founders scale their businesses faster and build enduring brands for domestic and international markets.
  • Nykaa and L’Oréal have maintained a long-standing partnership in India for over a decade, distributing global beauty brands across online and offline channels.
  • BOLD was launched in 2018 by L’Oréal to invest in innovative startups across the beauty value chain.

About the business

  • Operates as a digital-first beauty and retail platform serving 60 million customers through online platforms and 324 offline beauty destinations.
  • Expands operations across multiple segments including beauty, fashion, and business-to-business commerce.
  • Maintains a diverse house of brands including Nykaa Cosmetics, Dot & Key, Kay Beauty, Nykaa Collections, and Earth Rhythm.
  • Operates various fashion labels such as Nykd by Nykaa, KICA, 20 Dresses, RSVP, and Gajra Gang.
  • Extends operations internationally into the Middle East through its omnichannel retail offering named Nysaa.

The deal

Type
partnership

Investors

  • BOLD (Business Opportunities for L’Oréal Development) (lead) — Corporate venture capital fund of L’Oréal focusing on beauty and wellness startups.

Founders

  • Falguni Nayar, Founder and CEO
  • Adwaita Nayar, Founder
  • Anchit Nayar, Executive Director and CEO of Nykaa Beauty

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