Namaste, Sat Sri Akaal, and Salaam. 🫡

Today we’re diving into -
- Vinfast’s $2bn capital infusion into India,
- Neo’s bet on ‘extended-CIOs,’
- And Adani’s hefty port investment.

Our read time is 4 minutes and 52 seconds - faster than Airbnb prices in the Maldives crashed. 💀

Let's dive in. 👇

Market Vibe Check

VinFast spends $2 billion to go ‘India +1.’ ⚡

TLDR -
- VinFast is spending $2bn to invest into an India plant, giving them 150k more units of manufacturing capacity.
- They’ll be right with BMW, Tesla, Nissan, Renault, Hyundai, and others who’ve made Tamil Nadu their manufacturing hub.
- It’s a solid play on their classic ‘India +1’ strategy, cheaply make in India, cheaply sell to Asia.

There’s a good chance you don’t know about this $20 billion EV company. It’s a Vietnamese outfit called VinFast, and they’ve been in business since 2017.

Like most other EV makers, they’re adopting an ‘India +1’ strategy - in other words, base all your manufacturing out of India, and then cheaply sell your products across Asia because of lower export costs.

They’re earmarking around $2 billion on a break into India. Most of their manufacturing masala will be centered around a facility in Tamil Nadu’s Thoothukudi, which makes VinFast neighbors with Hyundai, BMW, Renault, Nissan, Ola, and Tesla - other EV makers who’ve made Tamil Nadu their home for manufacturing.

Factory will currently have capacity to produce 150,000 units per year, with over 3,500 people being employed.

VinFast also gets a big currency arbitrage advantage - they’re investing in USD, which is a hell of a lot of INR when converted.

Electric… ⚡

Neo nabs $36mn for an ‘extended CIO service.’ 🤵💼

TLDR -
- Neo Asset Management just picked up $36mn from Peak XV.
- They’re selling an “extended CIO product” - tailored, personal financial advice instead of commissions on product-pushing.
- Any player that can come into the market and address the massive trust deficit + incentive gap will be a BIG winner.

Sequoia just led a $36 million round in WealthTech startup Neo.

They brand themselves as “extended CIOs” - participating in investment committees, offering views on asset allocation, and improving corporate structures for a fee.

Neo services businesses, family offices, and HNIs - and already has 1000+ paying customers.

India is the country with the 2nd highest number of HNIs (high net-worth individuals), but our wealth management sector is still pretty underdeveloped.

A lot of finance companies focus more on selling “products” like mutual funds, structured derivatives, etc instead of selling tailored financial advice.

This is a big problem, since what’s good for the client is not necessarily good for the salesman, and these finance companies make higher commissions when pushing odd products.

This leaves a big gap in the market for someone who can come in and do business in a way that fills up the trust deficit and clears away the misaligned incentives.

Neo already has over $3 billion of assets under management and is focusing on hardcore tailored services over a one size fits all approach.

Crazy traction… 🏎️

Adani goes ham digging for a new port. 🚢

TLDR -
- Most big cargo ships skip Indian ports because our harbors are very shallow.
- Adani just spent $3bn+ on a new port which has the depth to compete with Colombo, Dubai, China, etc.
- This is a big win for India’s maritime trade industry: last year we only did 17m TEUs vs. China’s 245m TEUs.

Large ships have never liked Indian ports.

Big cargo ships rarely dock in India because most harbors are way too shallow to safely hold massive vessels. They instead choose to go places like Dubai or Colombo, where ports are more modern and connectivity is higher.

This is a massive wasted opportunity, because India’s coastline lies next to routes which account for 45% of global shipping traffic. In classic Gujjubhai fashion, Adani unveiled a massive port in Vizinjham, Kerala.

This latest Vizinjham port has a depth of 24m vs. Dubai’s 15m and Colombo’s 18m.

Last year, India only transacted 17 million 20-foot units, which is pretty small when compared to China’s 245 million 20-foot units, so this should attract a good amount of interest from abroad.

This depth increase is also not just a short-term fix - it’s a bet on the general increase in size of container ships over time.

A country’s port is the first thing that anything new entering passes through, so it makes sense for it to be a flagship experience!

In other news… ☕

SEC Chair’s Twitter account gets hacked to promote Bitcoin (FT)

AI photo editing app PhotoRoom hunts for $50-60mn at a $500-600mn valuation (TC)

Earthquakes rock Japan yet again (NYT)

FirstCry mints millions from their International business ahead of a blockbuster IPO (Arc)

Abu Dhabi’s $12bn Q Holding names new Chair and CEO (BBG)

And that’s the tea the chai for today.

Thanks for reading, and we hope you enjoyed it.

Lots of ❤️,

Team CC