Nykaa Founder Falguni Nayar Joins World's Richest With Today's IPO

Nykaa priced its initial public offering at the top end of a marketed range, raising 53.5 billion rupees ($722 million).

Falguni Nayar's beauty startup has jolted her to the ranks of the world's richest.

Nayar, who owns about half of Nykaa, is now worth about $6.5 billion as shares of the firm surged as much as 89% when they started trading Wednesday. She's become India's wealthiest self-made female billionaire, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. 

FSN E-Commerce Ventures, Nykaa's parent entity, is India's first woman-led unicorn to hit the stock exchange. It priced its initial public offering at the top end of a marketed range, raising 53.5 billion rupees ($722 million). The stock was up 78% as of 10:36 a.m. in Mumbai. 

Nayar, who formerly led a top Indian investment bank, founded Nykaa in 2012 just months before turning 50. Back then, most women in the country bought makeup and hair-care products at neighborhood mom-and-pop stores where the selection was scanty and trials unheard of.