Nykaa is no longer content with being the platform where beauty brands are sold. With its latest partnership with L’Oréal’s corporate venture capital arm BOLD, India’s largest beauty retailer is moving further upstream — identifying, nurturing, and investing in brands that could shape the next phase of the beauty market.
The two companies will jointly take minority stakes in high-growth Indian beauty, personal care, and wellness companies, while founders retain ownership and operational control. The investment corpus and size of individual investments have not been disclosed. Beyond capital, the partners will offer mentorship, beauty expertise, and access to their networks.
For Nykaa, the move builds on a strategy that began well before the L’Oréal deal.
In 2022, Nykaa partnered with Estée Lauder Companies’ New Incubation Ventures to launch BEAUTY&YOU India, an entrepreneurship programme aimed at discovering and supporting Indian beauty brands, according to executives at the firm. The programme offered financial support, mentorship, industry access and distribution support through Nykaa. Its inaugural winners included Skinvest, Bahut Beauty and Yaan Man. The programme has since become a recurring platform. In its fifth edition in 2026, Estée Lauder described Nykaa as a “launch partner” bringing consumer understanding, market expertise & distribution at scale.
Nykaa has also extended the incubation idea beyond products. In 2025, it partnered with Snapchat to launch the Nykaa Snap Star Beauty Incubator Programme, targeting Gen Z beauty creators and giving them access to Nykaa launches, creative formats and Snapchat technology.
The BOLD partnership is different, however. Unlike an awards or creator programme, it brings equity capital into the equation. “India is one of the most exciting beauty markets in the world,” said Jacques Lebel, managing director, L’Oréal India. He said the partnership would back founders with capital, mentorship and L’Oréal’s beauty expertise while allowing them to build independently.
Anchit Nayar, executive director and chief executive officer, Nykaa Beauty, said the ober-a-decade-long relationship between Nykaa and L’Oréal had given both companies an in-depth understanding of the Indian market. It has “allowed us to understand what it takes to build promising brands into an enduring one,” Nayar added.
The logic is straightforward: Nykaa brings consumer discovery, retail reach and distribution, while L’Oréal brings global beauty expertise. For a young brand, that combination potentially offers both capital and an accelerated route to market.
That is increasingly important as the Indian beauty and personal care market expands. The market is estimated at about $23 billion and is expected to reach roughly $40 billion by 2030, with premiumisation, digital adoption and younger consumers among the growth drivers, according to consultancy firm Redseer.
Analysts have already highlighted Nykaa’s owned brands and ecosystem as an important part of its growth proposition. Nomura, for instance, has said Nykaa’s platform, content ecosystem and owned brands could help it capture a disproportionate share of premium lifestyle spending. Jefferies has similarly pointed to the company’s expanding brand portfolio and premium assortment as drivers of longer-term margin expansion.
That makes the startup strategy strategically adjacent to Nykaa’s existing business rather than a complete departure from it. The company has been building its own portfolio, including Dot & Key, Nykaa Cosmetics, and Kay Beauty, while its retail platform gives emerging brands access to consumers and its content ecosystem helps drive discovery.