Falguni Nayar, an Online-Beauty Unicorn in India

For years most Indian women made do with only two beauty products: red lipstick and kajal, the black eyeliner that’s ubiquitous on the subcontinent. Nayar, a former investment banker, set out to change that when she founded Nykaa, formally listed as FSN E-Commerce Ventures Ltd., in 2012. At its core the site was a bet on two socioeconomic trends—that growing disposable income would make Indian women more willing to spend money on themselves, and that traditional reservations about makeup were fading away.

Nykaa, which takes its name from the Sanskrit word for “heroine,” found its earliest fans among Bollywood actors and millennials, demographics more inclined than others to buy cosmetics. But it’s since built a following across Indian society, offering a huge range of products tailored to South Asian skin tones and weather, as well as accessible tips on health and personal care. Perhaps most impressive, it’s holding its own against Amazon.com Inc. and Walmart Inc., both of which are investing heavily in Indian e-commerce. Nykaa’s revenue rose 40%, to 24.5 billion rupees ($329 million), in its latest fiscal year, up from 17.7 billion rupees. The IPO, which gave the company a $7.4 billion valuation, makes Nayar the first female entrepreneur to take an Indian unicorn public.