Nykaa founder Falguni Nayar's beauty startup jolts her into the ranks of the world's richest

Falguni 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).

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.

The startup has since grown into the country's leading beauty retailer, buoying online sales with demo videos by glamorous Bollywood actors and celebrities and more than 70 brick-and-mortar stores. Its sales surged 35% to $330 million in the year ended in March, according to its filing. Nykaa is a profitable company, a rarity among the internet startups making a debut in the public markets.

Nykaa's IPO is one of the many consumer Internet companies making its debut this year amid a soaring stock market. Paytm, India's leading digital payments firm backed by Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc. and Masayoshi Son's SoftBank Group Corp. closes for subscription on Wednesday. One97 Communications Ltd., its operator, is vying for a $2.5 billion listing, the nation's biggest.