From Pony.ai launching a robo-taxi service during a Shanghai storm to E Ink revolutionising the way supermarkets label their shelves – emerging market companies are in many cases leapfrogging western counterparts. In this episode, investment manager Alice Stretch reveals to host Leo Kelion some of the most disruptive companies innovating at speed in Asia and Latin America.

Background:

Alice Stretch is an investment manager in Baillie Gifford’s Emerging Markets Equity Team. In this conversation, recorded as part of our annual Disruption Week briefings, she explores some of the growth companies in her portfolios turning constraints to their advantage and reducing friction in their customers’ lives.

Companies discussed include:

PolicyBazaar – the Indian insurance platform making it easier for people to protect themselves against life’s financial shocks.

Nubank – the Brazilian digital lender extending access to banking and credit.

Meituan – the food delivery and local services app extending its reach beyond China.

MercadoLibre – the Latin American ecommerce and fintech giant expanding into advertising.

Mobile World – the Vietnamese conglomerate that has expanded from mobile phones to competitively priced groceries.

Sea Ltd – the Singaporean gaming, shopping and fintech group eyeing the possibilities of agentic AI.

TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company) – the world’s leading chip manufacturer.

E Ink – the Taiwanese e-paper pioneer building on its ebook success to provide supermarkets with updateable price tags and marketers with low-power digital billboards.

Pony.ai – the first driverless car company to offer a robo-taxi service in four of China’s most populous cities.

Resources:

Disruption Week

Emerging markets: how we do what we do

Emerging markets: from imitators to innovators

Emerging markets: the next engines of growth (podcast)

Emerging markets in 2050: growth in a changing world

Imec

Short Briefings on Long Term Thinking hub

Companies mentioned include:

Amazon

ByteDance

Chroma

E Ink

MercadoLibre

Mobile World

Meituan

Nubank

NVIDIA

PolicyBazaar

Pony.ai

Sea Ltd

Stellantis

TSMC

Timecodes:

00:00  Introduction – Pony.ai takes to Shanghai’s roads

02:00  The imitators become the innovators

05:10   How PolicyBazaar benefits from not being locked into a legacy system

07:10   Nubank: reducing friction while expanding access to banking and credit

09:25  MercadoLibre’s multi-act expansion leads it to advertising technology

10:25   Mobile World’s move from selling handsets to groceries

11:50   Ways Sea Ltd developed capabilities while operating under constraints

13:45   Sea CEO Forrest Li’s ability to adapt and pivot

15:25   Taking the long-term view and a generalist approach

17:30   Studying the semiconductor industry with the help of Imec and TSMC

19:45   Investing in Chroma and E Ink in Taiwan

21:10   Walmart and other supermarkets adopt E Ink’s updateable price labels

22:45  The case for investing in Pony.ai as a long-term growth investor

24:10   Pony.ai’s cost advantage and international partnerships

25:55  Taking macroeconomic and geopolitical risk into account

27:15   Putting deep knowledge and research to our clients’ advantage