Bet you didn’t know these 3 brands were born in Singapore

Bet you didn’t know these 3 brands were born in Singapore

Singapore has a quiet talent for creating world-class brands that have gone global – so global, in fact, that many people don’t realise they were born right here in Singapore. Behind the sleek branding, jaw-dropping funding headlines, and celebrity clients are companies many assume were born overseas – yet their roots are firmly planted right here at home. Let’s take a look at 3 Singapore-born brands that prove impossible for the world to ignore.

Allies of Skin

This is a brand you might have seen on shelves at Sephora, sitting alongside some of the world’s most prestigious beauty powerhouses. Indeed, Allies of Skin has a global polish that rivals the industry’s leading names. But dig a little deeper, and you’ll find its story begins in Singapore with its founder, Nicolas Travis, after a serious accident and a botched reconstructive surgery left him with infections, scarring, and visible damage to his face. That traumatic experience changed how he saw his own skin, and sparked a desire to build a beauty brand that helps people feel confident and supported in theirs. After years of research and development, Nicolas launched Allies of Skin in 2016 with just three products, funded in part by loans from his siblings. But from the start, he never intended for his brand to stay small or local – he believed it had to prove itself overseas to be taken seriously. Today, the company is headquartered in Berlin as it continues to grow.

A winning formula

The brand calls its approach “supercharged clinical”, but the idea is simple: science-led formulas that prioritise results, without demanding an overly complex routine. Now globally stocked in over thirty countries and championed by celebrities like Kaia Gerber and Pedro Pascal, the brand recently secured a USD$20 million (S$25.3 million) investment to fuel its expansion into the United States. Allies of Skin is living proof that purposeful innovation knows no borders, evolving from a local secret into a global powerhouse that reflects the healing journey of the man who started it all.

Oatside

You’d be surprised to learn that Oatside wasn’t born in a high-tech laboratory, but a kitchen here in Singapore. The ingredients in this oat milk’s origin story are relatable and ordinary: lockdown boredom, a love of coffee, and its founder’s stubborn refusal to accept that plant milk had to taste like compromise. Benedict Lim began a year of DIY experimentation during Singapore’s 2020 lockdown, tinkering with extraction methods and roasting profiles until he found something creamy enough for a proper cup. After a whirlwind journey – from sourcing oats in Australia to building its own state-of-the-art facility in the mountains of Bandung, Indonesia – Oatside made its Singapore debut in February 2022.

A taste of triumph

Oatside’s magic is its power to evoke the nostalgic comfort of a childhood drink, rather than taste like a health supplement. By roasting their oats instead of steaming them, the brand achieves a nutty, dessert-like profile that sets it apart from many other oat milks. This approach to taste and texture has propelled Oatside from kitchen counter to the global stage – it has now expanded to 18 markets in Asia and beyond, and secured over S$100 million in funding. That’s a trajectory as bold as its milk.

Morning

In 2020, Leon Foo, the coffee veteran behind PPP Coffee (formerly Papa Palheta) and the much-loved Chye Seng Huat Hardware, asked himself a question: How could he deliver the precision of a professional barista with the press of a single button? He was frustrated by the fact that, while top roasters were increasingly packaging their best beans into capsules, most coffee machines on the market were too basic to do them justice. That gap led Leon to partner with Yardstick Coffee co-founder Andre Chanco and manufacturing expert Bowen Chiou, culminating in the launch of the MORNING machine – the world’s first specialty capsule machine – on Kickstarter in 2020.

Rising and shining

Unlike other capsule coffee machines, the MORNING machine comes with built-in scales, precise temperature control, and pressure profiling, all adjustable through a sleek OLED dial or a smartphone app. These sophisticated features allow users to quickly calibrate their machines with unique settings set by the coffee roasters themselves, ensuring that a capsule from a roaster in London or Tokyo tastes exactly as intended – even when made in your own kitchen.

Backed by a recent US$5 million (S$6.3 million) investment to fuel its international expansion, MORNING now stocks 3 different versions of its machine in nearly 30 countries, and heads into 2026 as a testament to how innovations born in Singapore succeed on a global scale.