Surge, the rapid scale-up programme of Peak XV Partners (formerly Sequoia India & Southeast Asia), has launched its ninth cohort comprising 32 founders across 13 startups. Unlike previous cohorts, which only had startups from India and Southeast Asia, Surge’s ninth cohort also includes two startups from Australia in addition to seven from India and four from Southeast Asia.
In terms of sectors, the ninth cohort has a deeptech and artificial intelligence (AI) focus, with companies engaged in advanced manufacturing, quantum computing, climatetech 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 India, Southeast Asia and now Australia.
With the ninth cohort, Surge has added 330 founders and 140 startups across 16 sectors to its portfolio in less than five years. Since its launch in 2019, startups that have participated in Surge have collectively raised around $2 billion in follow-on funding rounds.
Initially, the firm would invest $1 million to $2 million in each startup, which later increased to $3 million. Startups such as Classplus, Plum, Scaler Academy, and Khatabook have been in previous Surge cohorts.
The ninth cohort includes semiconductor companies Mindgrove and InCore, climatetech startup Newtrace, deeptech startup Ethereal Machines (a precision engineering components maker), traveltech firm Elivaas, and AI platform ZeroK.
The cohort also includes Australian firm Relevance AI, a machine-learning startup that aims to help companies build an AI workforce that automates workflows with no code.
Singapore-based Pix.ai, another member of the latest cohort, helps creators produce high-quality anime art with an AI-powered art generator.
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