neemans got rejected by 77 investors who said “india won’t buy sustainable”

i was listening to a podcast recently and this story stuck with me. apparently Neeman’s got rejected by 77 investors early on. the common reason: “india doesn’t care about sustainable materials.” they eventually got a yes. and clearly, the market proved that assumption wrong. made me think about how often investors misread indian consumers because it doesn’t fit their mental models. wdyt? are vcs generally late to shifts like sustainability, d2c, regional-first brands, etc?

curious what people here think.