India’s two best-known consumer brands born online reported results on the same evening, both with soaring profits. The market’s response says a lot about how it now judges new-age companies
On Wednesday evening, within hours of each other, two of India’s best-known consumer companies reported their September-quarter results.
Both had started life online. Lenskart began selling spectacles through a website in 2010, and Nykaa began selling cosmetics online in 2012. Both went on to build large chains of physical stores. Both listed on the stock market amid enormous enthusiasm, Nykaa in November 2021 and Lenskart a year ago next week. And both now command a market value of more than ₹1 lakh crore.
That is why investors compare them. They are the two most prominent tests of a question the Indian market has been asking for five years: can a digitally born consumer brand grow into a business that justifies a premium valuation?
This week, the market answered that question differently for each of them.
The numbers looked similar
On paper, there was little to separate the two quarters.
Lenskart’s net profit rose 124.7% to ₹232.45 crore, and revenue grew 32.5% to ₹2,845 crore. Nykaa’s profit roughly tripled, rising about 207% to ₹101 crore, as revenue grew 28% to ₹3,006 crore. By the headline measure of profit growth, Nykaa actually did better.
The share prices told a different story. Lenskart jumped as much as 11% on Thursday to a record ₹767.40. It gave back some of that gain to close at ₹718.35, still about 7% higher on the day, and added another 0.9% on Friday to finish the week at ₹724.75. The stock is now about 80% above where it listed a year ago.
Nykaa slipped about 1.5% on Thursday to ₹350.30, then recovered slightly on Friday to close at ₹353. Over the two days after its results, it barely moved.
The difference was surprise
The gap came down to how much each company told the market that it didn’t already know.
Lenskart’s results came in ahead of expectations. Revenue beat the analyst consensus and EBITDA of ₹362 crore was about 3% above consensus. Underneath, the business looked stronger on almost every count. The EBITDA margin, before lease accounting adjustments, widened to 13.8% from 11.1%. India revenue rose 35.3%, with same-store sales up about 21%. Eyewear volumes grew 26.5% to 86 lakh units, and the number of eye tests rose 40%.
The international business was the real surprise. Pre-tax profit there more than tripled to ₹97 crore, and Lenskart added 22 stores abroad alongside 143 in India. First-half profit of ₹461 crore was already most of what the company earned in the whole of last year.
Nykaa’s quarter was good, but investors had seen it coming. In early October, the company published a business update that signalled revenue growth in the high twenties and gross merchandise value growth of about 30%. When the results arrived, they largely confirmed that guidance.
There was genuine progress in the detail. The beauty business crossed a 10% EBITDA margin for the first time, at 10.5%. Fashion, for years a drag on profits, reported its third consecutive quarter of positive EBITDA. It was only ₹1 crore, but that is a swing of ₹13 crore from a year earlier, with net sales value up 47%.
For a stock that had already rallied ahead of its results, the confirmation but wasn’t enough.
The valuation bar
Both companies trade at valuations that leave little room for an ordinary quarter.
Lenskart is valued at about ₹1.26 lakh crore, roughly 160 times its trailing earnings. Nykaa is valued at about ₹1.01 lakh crore, more than 300 times trailing earnings. At those multiples, investors are not paying for this year’s profits. They are paying for the profits these companies might earn five or ten years from now.
That changes how results are judged. When a company beats expectations, as Lenskart did, investors conclude the long-term path may be steeper than they assumed, and a high valuation becomes easier to defend. When a company only meets expectations, as Nykaa did, the long-term path looks unchanged, and there is little reason to pay more.
Margins sharpen the contrast. Nykaa kept about ₹3.40 of every ₹100 of revenue as net profit this quarter. Lenskart kept about ₹8. Nykaa’s investment case depends heavily on that number rising steadily over the coming years, and one in-line quarter doesn’t move it.
Where they stand
The longer view is kinder to both.
Lenskart listed on 10 November 2025 at ₹395, slightly below its IPO price of ₹402, a muted start that disappointed many investors at the time. A year later, it trades around ₹725.
Nykaa’s journey has been rockier. It listed in 2021 at a large premium, then lost most of its value in the 2022 sell-off in new-age stocks. Adjusted for its 5:1 bonus issue, its IPO price works out to about ₹187.50, and its 2021 peak to about ₹429. At ₹353, the stock is close to double its adjusted issue price but still well below its post-listing high.
What each has to prove next
Both companies now report profits, which marks a real shift for India’s consumer internet sector. A few years ago, investors judged these businesses mainly on revenue growth and on whether they could ever turn a profit. Today they are judged like any other listed company: on whether they beat expectations, and on whether margins keep improving.
For Lenskart, the task is sustaining momentum. At 160 times earnings, it needs growth to stay well above the market’s expectations, both in India and abroad.
For Nykaa, the task is margins. Its beauty business is now solidly profitable, and fashion has turned the corner. If Nykaa can show that profit margins are rising quarter after quarter, rather than just revenue, the market is likely to start rewarding it the way it rewarded Lenskart this week.
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