Building Enduring Consumer Brands in India
By Mithun Sacheti & Avnish Anand, Singularity AMC (Co-founders of CaratLane)
Building a big, profitable consumer brand in India that lasts is far harder than most people think. From the outside, India looks like an investor’s paradise, with a huge population, a growing middle class, and millions of young consumers ready to spend.
The reality is more complex:
Low average incomes but high expectations for quality and personalization
Regional fragmentation creating micro-markets
Hyper-competition with ideas quickly copied
Rapidly evolving tastes fueled by social media
These dynamics make it rare for consumer companies to achieve long-term, profitable growth. The question every investor faces is:
How do you identify the companies that can defy the odds and become enduring brands?
Learning from CaratLane
Our own journey with CaratLane gave us a ringside view. CaratLane broke even at ₹715 crores in revenue, serving around 3.5 lakh customers. An important realization was that growth only truly accelerates when free cash is available. You cannot grow endlessly by burning capital.
From CaratLane and from studying similar companies, we distilled three cornerstones for building long-term winners in Indian consumer markets:
1. Profitability - The Non-Negotiable Anchor
Look at profitability and growth together, not as trade-offs
Never lose sight of the customer’s wallet size. CaratLane kept the average selling price flat even when gold prices rose
Focus on share of wallet, or what more the same customer can buy, instead of just “lifetime value”
Maintain inventory discipline to keep margins healthy
Categories that can survive profitably at scale are often what we call “disruption proof,” where human interaction remains central, as in jewelry retail.
2. Growth - But the Right Kind
Not all growth is created equal. We prefer:
Categories that are “10-minute delivery proof,” meaning not easily commoditized by speed-based disruption
Sunrise industries with strong secular tailwinds
Premium customer segments with resilient demand, even in downturns, as with jewelry during COVID
3. Execution - The Silent Differentiator
Execution may be the least glamorous part of the story, but it is the glue that holds everything together:
Strong inherent gross margins in the category
Ability to keep marketing cost low at scale
A business model that delivers operating leverage as you grow
Embracing the theory of marginal gains: tiny, continuous improvements across every function
Execution is where an operator’s mindset meets an investor’s discipline.
Akshayakalpa - Building a Durable Consumer Moat
A powerful illustration of our investing principles is Akshayakalpa, a smaller investment in our portfolio but a standout example of entrepreneurial execution. The founder has built not just a business, but a robust and hard-to-replicate supply chain, creating a true moat in the Indian dairy landscape.
Akshayakalpa stands apart for several reasons:
The company has built a complex supply chain that gives it defensible advantages and protects it from competitors.
The product is superior and positioned in the premium segment, which allows Akshayakalpa to charge prices that are 25% higher than the market average. This translates into higher gross margins and greater sustainability.
By focusing on the premium segment, Akshayakalpa benefits from resilient demand. Customers in this segment value quality and traceability, making the business less vulnerable to downturns.
The dairy category offers high customer retention, meaning brand loyalty is strong and marketing costs remain low as customers continue to purchase.
As Akshayakalpa expanded into new states, the business achieved clear operating leverage. This success reflects both the attractive category dynamics in dairy and the meticulous execution demonstrated by the founder. The combination of product leadership and operational rigor aligns perfectly with our investment approach, which rests on profitability, quality growth, and disciplined execution.
Investor + Operator = Singularity Lens
At Singularity, our process is shaped by the “tug” between the investor brain, which focuses on unit economics and capital efficiency, and the operator brain, which understands what it takes to execute in the trenches.
We prefer to be slow, deliberate investors, aligning deeply with founders who share these principles before writing a cheque.
💡 Summary of Our Consumer Investing Principles
Profitability: Growth with discipline, not at the cost of sustainability
Growth Quality: Choose categories with intrinsic resilience and long-term demand
Execution Rigor: Combine investor metrics with operator excellence
This playbook is the foundation of how we evaluate brands today in our Consumer vertical at Singularity AMC. It is also why we believe the next generation of Indian consumer brands will be born in categories where these three principles intersect.
Great insights!
Super summary. Lots to learn. Just one feedback on the video - the sound bytes with every text box are slightly distracting. Since you already have the background music running, you could do away with this in the next one!
Looking forward to learning from both of you!