A really cool unheard story of Nykaa and the founder Falguni Nayar!
Mr. Uday Kotak speaks of Falguni Nayar's stint at Kotak -
"We had started a consulting division in KMFL. A year after she joined us, Sanjay Nayar, her husband, who was working in Citibank, was posted to London
Like a typical Indian wife, she wanted to join him. So, we took a view - We said, 'Falguni if you go to London, we will set up a London office. We want to do sales and trading in equities and in GDRs. Why don't you set it up?
So, Falguni set up our London office. Kotak Mahindra (UK) happened because of Falguni. After two years, Sanjay was transferred to New York. We said, Great! Falguni set up New York: By then, we had already set up a JV with Goldman.
I asked her to work for 6 months at the Goldman Sachs office. Then we set up our separate office in New York. When Sanjay returned to India as Country Head, Citibank, we brought her back as Head of our equities business in India.
She headed Kotak Investment Banking, a subsidiary of KMB.
In 2012, Falguni told me, 'Uday, I am happy with what I have been doing. I have done well, but I want to do something different. I won't compete with you.
I asked, 'What are you going to do?' She said, 'I am passionate about doing something in Internet and beauty"
While Mr. Kotak was surprised, he understood her desire to create something from scratch.
That's how Falguni, investment banker, who had traversed continents working with Kotak Mahindra for nearly two decades, started her entrepreneurial venture, Nykaa - the Indian retail outlet of beauty, wellness, and fashion products.
Damn cool, Right?
From the book - How Uday Kotak built a valuable Indian Bank
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Ather IPO opened today - I read the DRHP over the weekend
Capex when it's not needed, bad numbers, losing market share, amazing product, and a great team
A thread on Ather and this IPO, do retweet -
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About Ather -
- Sells E-2Ws, software, charging infra, and smart accessories
- Battery packs made in-house
- Portable chargers/motors, Motor controllers, transmissions, DC-DC converters, harnesses, and chassis are designed by Ather, but manufacturing is outsourced
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- Hosur Factory - Annual capacity - 4.2L Units (E2Ws) + 3.8L battery pack units (9MFY25)
- New capex post IPO for Factory 3.0 in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar to take this to 14.2 L Units
- 265 experience & 233 service centres in India, 9 in Nepal, 11 in Sri Lanka
The biggest winner in the Ather IPO is IIT-Madras Incubation Cell (IITMIC)!
IITMIC + IITMS Rural holds 15.58 L shares in Ather, valued at 50 Cr!
Their cost is just 15- 29L (1 Rs considered for IITMIC, but could be lower too)
172x to 333x made in 11 years! That's amazing :)
Forget Shark Tank, the real startup story is unfolding at IIT Madras Incubation Cell (IITMIC) in the IIT Madras Research Park
It has an 80% success rate with Startups!
I was there for an Investing conclave by TIA in Feb 2024 -
Quick History –
- Started with a 400 Cr debt, returned 600 Cr (principal+interest)
- IITMIC didn’t take any grants as they wanted to experience and showcase to startups how to create a sustainable bootstrapped business – they grew from the ground up in a lean way!
Reliance’s Jamnagar Refinery is an engineering marvel
It is the World's most complex and largest integrated, single-site refinery
It was the largest industrial investment made by an Indian enterprise at a single location
Some amazing facts on this Refinery -
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History –
Twenty-five years ago, on December 28, 1999, RIL launched its first refinery at Jamnagar
Overnight, this turned India from a fuel deficit nation to a self-sufficient one and later into a surplus, exporting gasoline and gasoil to Europe and the US
Img - BS
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It wasn’t so easy!
When RIL first spoke of it, experts said that it would be impossible for an Indian company to set up the world's largest grassroots refinery in 3 years. RIL did it in a world-record time of 33 months!
Lack of infra and a severe cyclone also hit Jamnagar
I have read 170 books in the last 5 years – 18 in 2024, 38 books in 2023, 30 books in 2022, 50 in 2021 and 34 in 2020 (List of books of earlier years in the end)
List of all the books that I read in 2024 and my top 6 picks –
Books I read in 2024 –
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1 - Behind Bars in Byculla: My Days in Prison by @JignaVora5 (Scoop series is based on the book)
2 – Cobalt Red: How the Blood of the Congo Powers Our Lives by @siddharthkara
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3 - Spreading Joy: How @Joyalukkas Became the World's Favourite Jeweller by Joy Alukkas, Thomas Scaria and Nidhi Jain
4 – The Winning Way: Learning from Sport Managers by @bhogleharsha and @BhogleAnita
5 - From Oberoi To OYO: Behind The Scenes by Chitra Narayanan
India's biggest Solar PV modules Manufacturer and exporter Waaree Energy has opened up its IPO
With an installed capacity of 13.3 GW, it is more than 3x the size of Adani and bigger than the next 3 players combined!
Everything you need to know about the company and the IPO -
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About the co. -
- Largest manufacturer and exporter of solar PV modules in India
- Total capacity of 13.3 GW (5.4 GW online soon), 21 GWe in FY27
- Has a PLI for 6 GW Ingot, Wafer, cell and Module manufacturing unit
- 5 manufacturing facilities in India (143+ Acres)
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- The best part is they sell the entire setup from solar panels to inverters to batteries (cells also in FY27)
- 39.3% of sales in Q1FY25 were exports – largest export % to US
- It’s not easy to be market leader that too by a huge margin when you have competitors like Adani