Adwaita Nayar is an Indian businesswoman. She is the co-founder of the beauty and lifestyle retail company ‘Nykaa’ and CEO of ‘Nykaa Fashion,’ an extended branch of the company, which she started in 2018.
Wiki/Biography
Adwaita Nayar was born in 1991 (age 31 years; as of 2022). She attended The Cathedral and John Connon School in Mumbai. Later, she attended Dhirubhai Ambani International School, where she completed her school. She pursued Bachelor’s in Applied Mathematics at Yale University (2008-2012). She later pursued an MBA at Harvard Business School (2015-2017).
Physical Appearance
Height (approx.): 5′ 8″
Weight (approx.): 60 kg
Hair Colour: Black
Eye Colour: Black
Family
She belongs to a Gujarati family.
Parents & Siblings
Her father, Sanjay Nayar, is the chairman of Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., which offers alternative asset management, capital markets, and insurance solutions. Her mother, Falguni Nayar, is the founder and CEO of Nyka.
Adwaita Nayar’s parents
She has a twin brother named Anchit Nayar, who is the CEO of Beauty E-Commerce at Nykaa.
Adwaita Nayar with her twin brother Anchit Nayar
Husband
Adwaita Nayar got married to Anubhav Gupta in 2019 in Udaipur.
Adwaita Nayar with her husband Anubhav Gupta
Career
Summer Intern
Adwaita Nayar started her career as a summer intern at the international NGO ‘CARE’ in Tanzania in 2009. She worked there for almost three months. The following year she enrolled herself in an internship at ‘Citigroup Inc.’ in London, United Kingdom, where she was a part of the Industrials Investment Banking team.
Summer Analyst
In June 2011, she joined the American multinational investment bank and financial services company ‘Morgan Stanley’ in Midtown Manhattan. She worked there as an institutional equities summer analyst and had the responsibilities to manage the emerging market equity derivative sales and trading.
Associate Consultant
In July 2012, she started working as an associate consultant at the American management consulting company ‘Bain & Company’ in the Greater New York City Area. She had the responsibities to consult the financial services firms on operational efficiency projects. She worked there for more than one year and resigned from there in August 2013.
Entrepreneur (Nykaa)
While Adwaita was working at ‘Bain & Company’ in New York, her mother shared her idea of starting her own business beauty products. Adwaita got excited about the idea and decided to pursue a career as an entrepreneur. She came back to India in 2013 and co-founded the Indian e-commerce company ‘Nykaa’ which sells beauty, wellness, and fashion products. She later decided to widen the horizons of the business by launching a new branch of the company for fashion products. In 2018, she launched ‘Nykaa Fashion’ which she headed as the CEO; it comprises 25% of Nykaa’s business. She grew the platform 120x in the first 12 months, and later took the e-commerce/ online business to the offline stores for which she visited different cities to understand the market and consumer preferences. The ‘Nykaa Fashion’ later featured more than 2000 international and national brands and also launched some of its own brands such as 20 Dresses, RSVP, Mixt, Likha, and Pipa Bella.
Favourites
- Book: “Pour Your Heart into It” by Howard Schultz
- Fashion Brand: NA-KD Fashion
- Quote: “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
Facts/Trivia
- In an interview, she said that she considers her mother to be her mentor and model. She said,
My mother is incredible; she is a mentor to me in every possible way, both in my personal and professional life. Every role that I will ever have in life, I feel like I already have a great mentor and role model for that.
- She believes that one should have a sustainable relationship with his/her work to make it successful. In an interview, she talked about her leadership style in business and said,
I define it as leading with equal measure: of a strong mind and a soft heart. Empathy is a big part of leadership and bringing that degree of understanding, mentorship and caring for people is my style.
- In 2021, Economic Times listed her in the list of “ET 40 Under Forty: India Inc’s Top Young Leaders.”
- In 2021, she was listed in the list of ‘Tycoons of Tomorrow’ by Forbes India.
- In November 2022, Adwaita Nayar was featured on the digital cover of the magazine ‘Entrepreneur India.’
Adwaita Nayar on the digital cover of the Entrepreneur magazine
- In an interview, she said that had she not been an entrepreneur, she would be a doctor or surgeon.
- She loves to explore different places.
- She enjoys playing football.