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$4.69M funded
REVENUE
Resilience Profile
Applecrumby
Nine years between funding rounds—surviving on margins while competitors burned cash. Now holds the world's first TCF diaper patent.
Petaling Jaya 🇲🇾
Brands
Founder-led. Proven traction. Global potential.
58 brands
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The world's fastest-growing consumer markets aren't producing brands for Western eyes. We found them anyway. Explore founder-led companies from Russia, China, India, and Malaysia with real traction and global ambition.
What is a Brand Resilience Profile?
Every brand profile documents a verified Transformation Arc—the crisis that nearly ended the business, the decision that changed everything, and what survival proves about founder resilience. Brands without this story remain in our database but don't receive profiles.
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58 brands shown
Undisclosed
REVENUE
Resilience Profile
Ghee Hiang
168 years old, seven years in court. Four families at war nearly destroyed Malaysia's oldest confectionery. Sesame oil—not pastries—now generates 70% of revenue.
George Town, Penang 🇲🇾
RM10-20M (estimated)
REVENUE
Resilience Profile
A Cut Above
A 428-square-foot salon became Malaysia's premier hairstyling academy after an 8-location express chain taught its founder when to cut losses.
Kuala Lumpur 🇲🇾
<$10M
REVENUE
Resilience Profile
Unhasu
UN sanctions banned chemical imports. Unhasu pivoted to indigenous ingredients in weeks—6x production growth, 13x export surge by 2023.
Pyongyang 🇰🇵
~USD 1-10M
REVENUE
Resilience Profile
Pomhyanggi
Five crises in 25 years: famine, demolition, sanctions, pandemic, flooding. Still won a WIPO Gold Medal and produces 12 million units annually.
Sinuiju 🇰🇵
$40-50M
REVENUE
Resilience Profile
Dezan Shira & Associates
A misspelled surname, $500, and Deng's Southern Tour. Thirty-two years later: 40+ offices, $50M revenue, six crises survived by staying put.
Hong Kong 🇨🇳
$5-10M
REVENUE
Resilience Profile
Dragonfly Therapeutic Retreat
Launched during SARS into Shanghai's missing middle. Academy-trained consistency made quality exportable—China's first service brand abroad.
Shanghai 🇨🇳
~USD 1.1-1.8M
REVENUE
Resilience Profile
ADA Serviced Office
From 200 sq ft during the 2008 crash to 100,000 sq ft across 7 locations. ISO 9001 certified. VC-backed rivals folded; ADA survived both crises.
Bayan Baru, Penang 🇲🇾
~USD 200M
REVENUE
Resilience Profile
Sela
Hebrew name. Israeli design. Chinese production. Russian stores. Boris Ostrobrod disguised "Russian" as "foreign" when domestic meant cheap.
Saint Petersburg 🇷🇺
$1.8M
REVENUE
Resilience Profile
ESSE
Igor Samsonov died at 46. Eleven months later, Forbes crowned ESSE Winery of the Year. His quality systems outlived him—Crimea's boldest bet.
Dolinnoe, Crimea 🇷🇺
$1-9M
REVENUE
Resilience Profile
Lhamour
Mongolia's first refill station—seven years before Western clean beauty. When consumers can't afford packaging, necessity becomes moat.
Ulaanbaatar 🇲🇳
$5-15M
REVENUE
Resilience Profile
Walk of Shame
Provincial Ufa to Paris Fashion Week. Zero ad budget, Instagram-first. 150 stockists at peak—yet founder admits "endless doubts" despite success.
Moscow 🇷🇺
$60M+
REVENUE
Resilience Profile
SUGAR Cosmetics
200K Fab Bag subscribers became SUGAR's secret weapon. Failed subscription transformed into intelligence moat L'Oréal can't replicate.
Mumbai, Maharashtra 🇮🇳
$916M
REVENUE
Resilience Profile
Perfect Diary
Zero TV ads. Zero magazine spreads. 15,000 KOL partnerships. Perfect Diary proved trust networks beat ad budgets—#1 on Tmall.
Guangzhou, Guangdong 🇨🇳
$60-80M
REVENUE
Resilience Profile
Abrau-Durso
When 2022 sanctions shut Western markets, Abrau-Durso tripled China sales in 90 days—152 years of heritage opening doors startups can't.
Novorossiysk, Krasnodar 🇷🇺
Château André
28 trips to French wine regions over six years—before planting a single vine. Now his daughter manages succession toward 1 million bottles.
Krymsk, Krasnodar 🇷🇺
Usadba Mezyb
The Russian Orthodox Church spent eight years preparing to make wine. Their winemaker won 'Winemaker of the Year' 2024 after just three vintages.
Gelendzhik, Krasnodar 🇷🇺
Galitskiy & Galitskiy
After building Russia's largest retail chain, Forbes billionaire Sergey Galitskiy gave his son-in-law 49% of a winery—not for profit but legacy.
Krasnodar 🇷🇺
Elbuzd
A tax office worker borrowed at 24% interest to build Russia's first gravitational winery—and nearly lost everything before 2022 profitability.
Elbuzd, Rostov 🇷🇺
$25-50M
REVENUE
SoleRebels
$5,000 on grandmother's land. 100,000 jobs created. Ethiopia's first global fashion brand. Artisan production as competitive moat.
Addis Ababa 🇪🇹
Uzunov
Four generations: Soviet workers → Fanagoria Chief Winemaker (35 years) → Russia's first family farm license → both sons involved.
Temryuk, Krasnodar 🇷🇺
$5-10M
REVENUE
Lefkadia Valley
How does a Russian winery crack the World's Best Vineyards Top 30? Hire the man who made Château Mouton Rothschild a legend: Patrick Leon.
Moldavanskoe, Krasnodar 🇷🇺
$10-20M
REVENUE
Vedernikov Winery
750,000 rubles for one bottle at auction—a Russian wine record. The grapes? Krasnostop Zolotovsky, grown nowhere else commercially.
Konstantinovsk, Rostov 🇷🇺
Novyi Svet
Russia's champagne birthplace. Prince Golitsyn carved cellars into coastal cliffs in 1878—tunnels that supplied tsars and outlasted regimes.
Sudak, Crimea 🇷🇺
Myskhako
One year before Abrau-Durso existed, Fyodor Geyduk founded Myskhako in 1869. After 156 years of political transitions, 2021 capital revived it.
Novorossiysk, Krasnodar 🇷🇺
Millstream
Founded 1936 under Stalin, Millstream survived Nazi occupation, Soviet recapture, and regime collapse. Now 5.5M bottles from pre-WWII roots.
Temryuk, Krasnodar 🇷🇺
Tsimlyansk Wines
Red sparkling wine sounds like a gimmick—unless Cossacks perfected it since the 18th century. Vines buried annually to survive -25°C.
Tsimlyansk, Rostov 🇷🇺
Zolotaya Balka
The harbor where the Light Brigade charged in 1854 now produces 13 million bottles of sparkling wine annually from 135 years of heritage.
Sevastopol 🇷🇺
Kuban-Vino
Château Tamagne doesn't sound like a Soviet-era winery brand—and that's the point. Russia's largest producer runs a dual-brand playbook.
Temryuk, Krasnodar 🇷🇺
Derbent Cognac Factory
Soviet planners split Derbent's wine operations in 1960. The cognac side became a ₽2.7B spirits powerhouse producing 10M+ liters annually.
Derbent, Dagestan 🇷🇺
Massandra
Prince Lev Golitsyn founded Massandra in 1894 to serve the tsars. Seven tunnels now preserve over a million bottles dating to the 18th century.
Yalta, Crimea 🇷🇺
Inkerman
55,000 square meters of chambers carved into Inkerman Mountain—ancient quarries turned Soviet wine cellars with zero refrigeration required.
Sevastopol 🇷🇺
$80-100M
REVENUE
Fanagoria Estate Winery
Russia's largest winery ships 800,000 bottles to China yearly—scoring up to 97 Parker points from its own cooperage's Russian Oak.
Sennoy, Krasnodar 🇷🇺
Isa Musaev Winery
'Best sommelier/winemaker of Dagestan' making 5 ultra-premium wines integrated with Caspian wine tourism.
Derbent, Dagestan 🇷🇺
Uppa Winery
Russian winery founded by Pavel Shvets in Krasnodar Krai. Listed brand with CEO verification.
Rodnoye 🇷🇺
Vinabani
Four generations preserving 30+ nearly extinct Don autochthon grape varieties that survived Soviet anti-alcohol campaigns.
Malaya Martynovka, Rostov 🇷🇺
Villa Zvezda
The winemaker incubator: Co-founders later launched Usadba Sarkel (Forbes Top 100) and Vinabani (30+ autochthon varieties).
Malaya Martynovka, Rostov 🇷🇺
Usadba Sarkel
Reviving 1,400-year-old Khazar winemaking site and Pushkin-era 'Kazachka' sparkling tradition with Forbes Top 100 recognition.
Sarkel, Rostov 🇷🇺
Skalisty Bereg
ArchDaily Building of the Year 2021 finalist: Architectural landmark gravity-flow winery with 2022 debut vintage.
Varvarovka, Krasnodar 🇷🇺
Marko
Grandfather's 20-year passion project: Stavropol's sixth farm winery with ungrafted Krasnostop vines, named for grandson Mark.
Donskaya Balka, Stavropol 🇷🇺
Levokumskoye
237-year-old Stavropol flagship (1788) undergoing complete 2022 reconstruction and 700ha→1,200ha expansion.
Novokumsky, Stavropol 🇷🇺
Krinitsa
French enologist (now Russian citizen) + young Russian winemaker = Double Gold Terravino 2024 winner with gravity-flow facility.
Krinitsa, Krasnodar 🇷🇺
Dva Romana
Two friends named Roman (lawyer + engineer) running a 5,000-bottle nano-winery with entirely manual production.
Krasnodar 🇷🇺
AYA Organic Vineyards
Russia's first mandatory organic certification (2024), 'Wine Roads of Russia' winner—exceptional quality on disputed Crimean territory.
Chorgun 🇷🇺
Antonenko Family Winery
Family hobby-to-business transition with two Anapa tasting rooms and full family operational involvement.
Anapa, Krasnodar 🇷🇺
Domaine Lipko
A lawyer and Florida-trained golf professional turned winemaker on a Crimean Paleolithic archaeological site.
Sevastopol 🇷🇺
Dacha Serdyuka
Ten kilometers from where the Krasnostop Zolotovsky grape was born, Sergey Serdyuk makes Russia's only wine without sulfur dioxide.
Novocherkassk, Rostov 🇷🇺
Belbek
Ceramic artist planted vines in 2012. Three years later, Grand Prix as Russia's 'Best Red Wine.' Artisan craft from clay to vine.
Sevastopol 🇷🇺
Yaila
Crimean natural wine pioneer founded by Vitaliy Marinchuk. Russia's first still Pinot Meunier (2017), pioneered orange wines from Kokur (2018), first bourbon barrel aging. 30,000-50,000 bottles annually, 10-year cult following.
Sevastopol 🇷🇺
Shumrinka
Decanter World Wine Awards winner combining Serbian Probus grapes, drone monitoring, and traditional handwork at scale.
Gai-Kodzor, Krasnodar 🇷🇺
Derbent Wine Factory
Every fifth bottle of Russian sparkling wine comes from Derbent. 2,300 hectares in Dagestan's ancient terroir.
Derbent, Dagestan 🇷🇺
Château Le Grand Vostock
Franco-Russian winery on the 45th parallel, founded in 2003 by French winemaker Frank Duseigneur, now restructured under new ownership with Michel Rolland consulting.
Sadovoye, Krasnodar 🇷🇺
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