Falguni Nayar wins the EY Entrepreneur Of The Yearâ„¢ Award 2021

Falguni Nayar, Founder & CEO, Nykaa, was today named the EY Entrepreneur of the Year™ 2021 and will now represent India at the EY World Entrepreneur of the Year Award (WEOY) on 9 June 2022. Shri Bhupender Yadav, Honourable Minister of Labour & Employment and Environment, Forest & Climate Change graced the ceremony as the Chief Guest and addressed the audience. Dr. Bhagwat K Karad, Honourable Minister of State for Finance was the Guest of Honour.

An investment banker turned entrepreneur, Falguni Nayar disrupted a brick-and-mortar industry by taking a digital route to sell beauty products in 2012. Her start-up, Nykaa, is one of the profitable start-ups in the country with a strong omni-channel presence. Over the last two years, she has diversified from beauty into fashion and lifestyle and has a well-established portfolio of over 2,600+ international brands and 100+ offline stores. The company recently raised fresh capital for expansion through a blockbuster IPO. Falguni was the recipient of EY Entrepreneur of The Year Award in the Start-up category in 2019.

In his address, the Chief Guest, Shri Bhupender Yadav, Honourable Minister of Labour & Employment and Environment, Forest & Climate Change said, “India is marching towards an inclusive and sustainable economy which firmly believes in enabling and enhancing the efficiency and efficacy of our entrepreneurs. It is great to see that this year, EOY Awards has 21 Finalists with combined revenues of INR 1.87 trillion, who collectively employ more than 2,60,000 people; this is a testimony of nation’s entrepreneurial talent.”

A M Naik, Group Chairman, Larsen & Toubro, was felicitated with the Lifetime Achievement Award. Mr. Naik joined the L&T in 1965 and grew within the ranks to become the Chairman and Managing Director in 2003. He has been instrumental in transforming the engineering services company into one of India’s foremost conglomerates spanning engineering and construction, energy, finance and IT. Imbibing ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’, he has given a strong ‘Make in India’ orientation to the company's products and has engaged L&T in sectors of national significance of defense, nuclear, energy, aerospace, infrastructure, oil & gas and power.

Awards were also announced for nine other categories with the winners representing both mature industries and young entrepreneurs from startups including unicorns.

EY Entrepreneur Of The Year™ 2021 Winners

EY Entrepreneur of the Year™ 2021

Falguni Nayar, Founder and CEO, FSN E-commerce (Nykaa)

 Lifetime Achievement

1. M. Naik, Group Chairman, Larsen & Toubro

Category Winners

Start-up: Vidit Aatrey, Co-founder & CEO and Sanjeev Barnwal, Co-founder & CTO, Fashnear Technology (Meesho)

Business Transformation: Abhay Soi, Chairman and Managing Director, Max Healthcare

Manufacturing: Sunil Vachani, Founder and Executive Chairman, Dixon Technologies   

Services: Sahil Barua, Co-founder and CEO, Delhivery

Consumer Products & Retail: Shiv Kishan Agarwal, Chairman; and Manohar Lal Agarwal, Chairman and Managing Director respectively, Haldiram Group

Life Sciences & Healthcare: Dr. Satyanarayana Chava, Founder and CEO, Laurus Labs

Financial Services: Harshil Mathur, Co-founder and CEO; and Shashank Kumar, Co-founder and CTO, Razorpay

Technology, Media and Telecom: Girish Mathrubootham, Co-founder and CEO, Freshworks

Entrepreneurial CEO: Vivek Vikram Singh, Managing Director and Group CEO, Sona Comstar

Rajiv Memani, Chairman and CEO, EY India, said, “The backdrop of the awards this year is one of great resilience of India’s entrepreneurial ingenuity and the country’s growth prospects. Our EY Entrepreneur of the Year 2021 Winners should be celebrated for their success against all odds, especially in today’s business environment which is more dynamic than ever. Many of the winners are very young and have tremendously scaled their enterprises through innovation, adoption of new-age technologies, and value creation in a very short span of time. I congratulate each one of them for paving the way for other aspiring entrepreneurs and achieving excellence in their respective sectors.”

Says Farokh Balsara, Partner and EOY India Program Leader, “Heartiest congratulations to our 2021 Winners who have shown incredible resilience to unlock new opportunities during uncertain times. Their entrepreneurial mindset combined with agility and speed has helped them grow their businesses to exponential scale and build enabling processes, technologies, systems and structures.”

The Winners were selected by an eminent nine-member independent Jury Panel led by KV Kamath, Former Chairman, ICICI Bank. Other Jury Members include Dr. Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, Chairperson, Biocon, Vibha Padalkar, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, HDFC Life, Neeraj Bharadwaj, Managing Director, The Carlyle Group, Amit Dixit, Head Asia Private Equity, Blackstone, Rajnish Kumar, Former Chairman, State Bank of India, Harsh C. Mariwala, Chairman, Marico, Sanjiv Mehta, CEO and Managing Director, Hindustan Unilever, and Gopal Srinivasan, Founder, Chairman and Managing Director, TVS Capital Funds. The Jury considered a host of criterion including the nominee’s entrepreneurial spirit, ability to navigate through Covid-19, recent financial performance, strategic direction, product or service innovation, leadership including personal integrity and risk-taking abilities, corporate governance, and social and environmental impact.

KV Kamath, Former Chairman, ICICI Bank and Jury Chair of EOY Awards 2021, said, “Each of the EOY 2021 Winners has an outstanding story of entrepreneurial excellence. They have pivoted and grown at a tremendous pace, adopted technology, and built very competitive businesses. On behalf of the Jury, I congratulate all the 2021 Finalists and Winners who are making a commendable impact in their respective ecosystems and truly represent the emergence of a new India.”

The EY Entrepreneur Of The Year™ (EOY) Awards is the only global business award program in the world, which is celebrated across 60 countries. Now in its 23rd year in India, it recognizes the unstoppable entrepreneurs who, with their innovation, resilience and

boldness are positively impacting lives of millions and carving out a different future from the present.