Nykaa Q1 profit jumps 227 per cent as revenue nears Rs 2,800 crore

MUMBAI: Beauty may be skin deep, but Nykaa’s latest numbers suggest the real glow-up is happening on the balance sheet. With bigger marketing bets and sharper margins, the beauty retailer is proving that spending to grow doesn’t have to come at the cost of profits.

Nykaa, operated by FSN E-Commerce Ventures Ltd, kicked off FY27 with robust top-line growth and a sharp improvement in profitability, even as it stepped up investments in advertising and customer acquisition to strengthen its position in India’s fast-growing beauty and fashion e-commerce market.

For the quarter ended June 30, 2026, the company reported revenue from operations of Rs 2,782 crore, up 29 per cent from Rs 2,155 crore a year earlier and 5 per cent higher than Rs 2,648 crore in the previous quarter.

Gross profit rose 33 per cent year-on-year to Rs 1,276 crore, with gross margins expanding to 45.9 per cent, compared with 44.6 per cent in the corresponding quarter last year and 45.4 per cent in the March quarter.

Marketing remained one of the company’s biggest areas of investment. Advertising, marketing and selling & distribution expenditure increased 26 per cent year-on-year to Rs 412 crore, up from Rs 328 crore in the year-ago quarter and 8 per cent higher than the Rs 380 crore spent in the preceding quarter.

Despite the increased spending, marketing costs became more efficient relative to revenue. Marketing expenditure accounted for 14.8 per cent of revenue, lower than 15.2 per cent a year ago, although marginally higher than 14.4 per cent in the previous quarter, indicating that revenue growth continued to outpace promotional investments.

Nykaa also delivered stronger operating performance. Contribution profit climbed 37 per cent year-on-year to Rs 589 crore, while the contribution margin improved to 21.2 per cent, compared with 19.9 per cent a year earlier.

EBITDA surged 68 per cent to Rs 236 crore, with EBITDA margin expanding by 196 basis points to 8.5 per cent, up from 6.5 per cent in the corresponding quarter last year. Sequentially, EBITDA increased 3 per cent from Rs 223 crore, while margins edged up from 8.4 per cent.

At the bottom line, profit after tax (PAT) jumped 227 per cent year-on-year to Rs 80 crore, compared with Rs 24 crore in the same quarter last year. Sequentially, profit remained largely stable against Rs 79 crore reported in the March quarter.

Profit before tax nearly tripled to Rs 129 crore, while the PAT margin improved to 2.9 per cent, up from 1.1 per cent a year earlier.

Commenting on the performance, Falguni Nayar, Executive Chairperson, Founder and CEO of Nykaa, said crossing the US$1 billion annual revenue milestone while maintaining profitability and capital efficiency marked a defining moment in the company’s 14-year journey.

She noted that over the past three years, Nykaa has evolved into a multi-engine growth platform, with its Beauty and Fashion businesses doubling their gross merchandise value (GMV), while newer verticals such as Superstore and House of Nykaa have grown four-fold during the same period.

The company now serves more than 55 million consumers, with Nayar highlighting artificial intelligence as a key enabler for improving personalisation, operational efficiency and scalability across its businesses. She also identified wellness as Nykaa’s next major growth frontier alongside its core beauty and fashion operations.

The strong quarterly performance builds on FY26, when Nykaa crossed the US$1 billion annual revenue mark, reporting Rs 10,022 crore in revenue, 59 per cent growth in EBITDA and 183 per cent growth in net profit, making it the company’s strongest full-year profitability performance to date.