Surge, the rapid scale-up programme of venture capital firm Peak XV Partners (formerly Sequoia India and Southeast Asia), has unveiled its ninth cohort of startups comprising 32 founders across 13 ventures.
Unlike previous cohorts, which had startups from India and the Southeast Asia region, Surge’s ninth cohort also includes startups from Australia.
Surge 09 will include two Australian startups in addition to seven from India and four from Southeast Asia.
In terms of the sectors where the selected startups operate, the ninth cohort has a focus on deeptech and artificial intelligence (AI) with companies in advanced manufacturing, quantum computing, climate-tech and healthtech.
“As we start new company-building journeys with our Surge 09 founders, it is clear that we are witnessing the growth of AI and deeptech innovation, as well as the talent in these sectors emerging from Asia,” said Rajan Anandan, managing director, Peak XV and Surge.
Surge offers company-building workshops, a global curriculum, up to $3 million in seed funding, and the support of a network of mentors and entrepreneurs. The programme's objective is to provide mentorship and access to funding to early-stage startups in Southeast Asia and India.
By way of the ninth cohort, Surge counts 330 founders and 140 startups across 16 sectors as part of its portfolio, in less than five years. Since its launch in 2019, startups that have been part of Surge have collectively raised around $2 billion in follow-on funding rounds.
Initially, the firm used to invest $1 million and $2 million each in startups. It later increased the amount to $3 million. Previously, Classplus, Plum, Scaler Academy, and Khatabook were part of Surge cohorts.
The ninth cohort includes Indian semiconductor companies Mindgrove and InCore, climate-tech startup Newtrace, deeptech startup Ethereal Machines, traveltech firm Elivaas, and AI platform ZeroK.
The cohort also has Australia-based Relevance AI, which is a machine learning startup that aims to help companies build an AI workforce that automates workflows with no code.
Singapore-based Pix.ai, which is also part of the cohort, helps creators produce high-quality anime art through an AI-powered art generator.