Tug of war between roll-ups and VCs; the changing face of beauty commerce

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Hi there,

A not-so-old iPhone model, a particular Dyson vacuum, and a DSLR camera – these things on my Christmas list have sent me scurrying from store to store in Bengaluru only to hear the two dreaded words: “No stock.”

If you haven’t started on your shopping list yet, make a run for it before Amazon or Shopee (pick your Achilles’ heel) start telling you that the products are running low – I had to settle for a less-favored color for the phone cause the preferred one wasn’t available.

The ease with which I flit between the doors of offline and online commerce may be making me pickier, but it is what it is – we live in a world spoiled for choice. So why should startups have it any different?

In this week’s big story, my colleague Ardi unpacks how consumer brands in Southeast Asia are being wooed by not just VCs, but also ecommerce roll-ups. Also known as brand aggregators, these ecommerce roll-ups mushrooming just about everywhere often present startups with deals more enticing than what their VC counterparts offer.

This is a fascinating trend – it’s a tug of war that can make for some solid material for a Silicon Valley-like drama series based in Asia, in case someone from a streaming service is reading this.

Talking about trends, our analysis for this week is a primer on how the beauty industry is hotter than ever, evolving to the demands of a world fueled by choices.

Despite its blockbuster public listing in India, cosmetics and fashion retailer Nykaa still shares the headlines with newer entities, like the recently minted Good Glam Group. But even as the former works on its expansion plans – similar to what its Indonesian counterpart Social Bella has been doing – there’s a rising tide of beauty startups that are adopting the personalized approach to reach their customers.

THE BIG STORY

Roll-ups square up to VCs in race to land top D2C deals in SEA

Image credit: Timmy Loen

For Southeast Asia’s rising consumer brands, aggregators like Hypefast and Una Brands offer an enticing alternative to “slow” and dilutive VC funding.

THE HOT TAKE

Definitions of beauty are changing – so are beauty startups

NEWS YOU SHOULD KNOW

FYI