Paige Finn DohertyFounding Partner, Behind Genius · Founding Partner at Behind Genius Ventures

What strategies does Banana Capital Partner Turner Novak use for investing in emerging markets?

22 Oct 2022 · 1 min

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In this interview segment, Turner Novak of Banana Capital explains the firm’s approach to investing in e‑commerce platforms across emerging markets. The strategy involves identifying publicly traded e‑commerce models that have succeeded in China or India and replicating those models in regions such as Brazil, broader Latin America, and Vietnam. Novak emphasizes targeting underserved consumer segments—specifically the bottom 80% of shoppers—and niche product categories like beauty items in Latin America and fresh produce in Vietnam, where e‑commerce penetration is low. He notes that Banana Capital typically avoids investing in pre‑launch e‑commerce ventures because they present difficult business models, preferring companies with proven traction and clear growth metrics.

Chapters

What are some like examples of companies that you've invested in?
So we've invested in a lot of e-commerce platforms in emerging markets. So usually it's kind of like, hey, there's a model that works in China or in India. It's a publicly traded company. It's worth $10 billion or $50 billion, whatever the number is. And they did it by targeting a certain customer segment or a certain type of growth strategy, certain type of products. And it's like, hey, we're trying the same thing in Brazil. We think the timing's right. No one's cracked e-commerce for the bottom 80% of consumers in Brazil, or nobody's cracked selling beauty products online in Latin America, or nobody's cracked selling fruits and vegetables online in Vietnam. Like there's just all these different random categories. So, you know, you meet the founder and the numbers look really good. Like, I mean, generally we're not investing pre-launch with e-commerce platforms. They're really, they're like very difficult business models.