Deepak's Musings #148: ASEAN will be the home of many insurgent brands in the next decade

🇻🇳🇮🇩🇵🇭 DSG Consumer Partners excited by opportunities in Vietnam, the Philippines and Indonesia

I visited Mumbai in December 1998 on a business school graduation trip. I had not been to India for over a decade. On that trip, everything changed for me. Given the opportunity I saw driven by growing consumer demand, I pivoted my professional career and personal ambitions to go all in India. Many may argue that I was 10-15 years too early. Early investments include brands that are market leaders today: Saffronart, India’s leading auction house; Sula Vineyards, India’s lead wine brand; and Cleartrip, one of India’s first OTAs.

As I spend more time in ASEAN, I see many similarities in Jakarta, Ho Chi Minh and Manila. The smartest are coming back from the US and Europe to build business across sectors in their home countries. Consumers are becoming more demanding and asking more from the brands they buy. The incumbents, large and slow, are finding it difficult to launch new brands for this new consumer.

We at DSGCP are committed to spending the next decade seeding the ASEAN insurgent consumer brands of the future.

My partner Sameer Mehta recently spoke to Deal Street Asia’s Ngoc Nguyen about the firm’s plans.

We have partnered with Youvit, Saturdays Eyewear and Rose All Day in Indonesia, Colourette Cosmetics and Pickup Coffee in the Philippines, and Coolmate and Marathon Education in Vietnam. Our other Singapore-based businesses, including SaladStop Group, Moom Health, Blood, and Kind Kones, are active in these markets.

I expect that, like India, these companies and economies will take time to mature. The need of the hour is long-term investors and an ecosystem that thinks decades, not years.

🌶️ Indian Silicon Valley Podcast: Veeba, India’s most loved sauce company

In this episode, Jivraj Singh hosts Viraj Bahl, founder of Veeba, India's most loved sauce brand. In India, we all find Veeba sauces in our kitchens and sachets in our deliveries. In the last 10 years, Veeba moved from an insurgent to a market leader in the category. Jivraj manages to extract so many lessons from this free-wheeling conversation.

🧿 Arindam Paul’s 12 Key Consumer Trends

Based on thousands of consumer interactions and observations at retail counters and home visits nationwide, Arindam compiled twelve key trends for founders building consumer brands in India.

👨🏻‍👩🏻‍👦🏻‍👦🏻 Startups founded by scions of traditional business families are raking in venture funding

Yes, experience matters. In today’s Economic Times, Pranav Mukul argues that VCs like these entrepreneurs because of their inherent understanding of the business and deep-rooted connections in the supply chain ecosystems.

At DSG Consumer Partners, we have backed several brands in this category, including Veeba and Go Zero, which are mentioned in this article. At the same time, we have said no to more start-ups from a similar pedigree. Just because you come from a family business in a particular category does not mean you will succeed in building a new brand.

🤎 I love Nutella, and I am nervous

Will it taste as good as the real thing?

🌿 Podcast: Scott Galloway on the Plant-Based Industry

Love him or hate him, Scott Galloway is often worth listening to for his perspective on the alternative protein industry.

🧳 The insurgent brand opportunity is only just getting started

Luggage start-ups are attracting a lot of VC interest.

❤️‍🩹 How far can a brand go with making health claims?

Poppi is one of the fastest-growing health soda brands, taking the market by storm. Now, Poppi is being sued in a false advertising class action suit, with consumers claiming prebiotic sodas don't provide promised health benefits. They allege that to see any actual benefit; consumers would have to consume at least four Poppis a day, every day for at least a month.

🤖 How Unilever is embracing AI

Unilever is leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) to drive innovation and sustainability across its brands. This story highlights a few areas where it is being deployed.

👨‍💻 And so is every other large CPG company

Following on from the previous story on what Unilever is doing with AI, this piece from the Economic Times highlights some of the initiatives large CPG companies in India are leveraging and testing AI, including ITC, Parle, Marico and Tata Consumer.

🛖 Portfolio snapshot: StayVista unveils luxury brand ‘Vieda’

Travel and hospitality are moving experientially and, as my friend and CEO of Postcard Hotels says, are transformational. Consumers want an experience that is unique and designed for them.

We have been long-term partners with StayVista and are excited to see them embark on their next growth phase to meet the demands of India’s next generation of travellers.

💅🏻 How important is technology to BPC companies?

Insightful interview with L’Oréal’s Guive Balooch on how the combination of technology and science is moving so quickly with consumer demands and needs to be met.

✈️ Tourism and hospitality are on a journey of disruption

Fantastic report on where the tourism and hospitality market is headed. McKinsey notes that the market is experiencing significant disruption due to changing source markets, increased demand for experiential and luxury travel, and innovative business strategies. They identify four major themes:

1. Domestic and Intraregional Travel
2. Personalized Travel Experiences
3. Evolving Luxury Travel
4. Managing Overcrowding

There is much more to digest, and it is worth a deep dive for anyone interested in travel and hospitality.

📰 Select funding & deal news

Funding and deal news that caught my attention this week