Rajan AnandaCEO of Peak XV, told ET that this is Surge’s largest cohort, both geographically and across sectors.
This also marks Surge’s second cohort since Peak XV Partners was formed following the separation of Sequoia Capital.
The 10th cohort includes companies such as Brainfish, Auquan, Dubbing AI, Orbitshift, Ambak, Parseable, SalarySe and Wobot AI in the AI and financial services space. Other startups include Amaani, Clout Kitchen, Dezy, The Health Factory, Tailcall, and a stealth mode healthcare startup.
“In this cohort we have companies from India, Southeast Asia, Australia, China, the United Kingdom and the United States. We also have our first Middle East company… In our last cohort, we had a lot of deep tech and semiconductor companies. When you combine that with the current cohort, it is a representation of where the Indian startup ecosystem is today – broad-based innovation across sectors, which is unique to India,” Anandan said.
In its ninth cohort, Surge had backed 13 companies focused on Deeptech, AI, advanced manufacturing and quantum computing.
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Since launching in 2019, Surge has supported over 150 startups across 17 sectors. Notable startups backed by Surge over the years include InCore, Mindgrove, Ethereal Machines, Scaler Academy, Khatabook, Log 9 Materials, Plum, and Lambda Test. Surge initially invested between $1 million and $2 million per startup, but has since raised the ceiling to $3 million. , allowing the participation of a wider range of companies.
“One of the design decisions we made at Surge is to have small cohorts. Our cohorts will range from 10 to 20. We don’t have a hard and fast rule that there has to be 10, 15 or 20. In general, we want to partner with the best founders we can find in sectors that we think are very interesting,” Anandan added.
In addition to receiving up to $3 million in seed funding, founders benefit from the support and guidance of Surge’s investment and operational teams, covering areas such as recruiting, product development, technology and marketing. The program also offers mentoring and business creation workshops.
The Surge 10 program will run from October 2024 to February 2025.
Previous speakers and mentors at Surge include Tokopedia co-founder William Tanuwijaya, Stripe CEO Patrick Collison, Zerodha CEO Nitin Kamath, Cred founder Kunal Shah, Unacademy CEO Gaurav Munjal , Info Edge Founder Sanjeev Bikhchandani, Pine Labs CEO Amrish Rau, Meesho CEO Vidit Aatrey, Freshdesk CEO Girish Mathrubootham, Urban Company CEO Abhiraj Singh Bhal, and Director Zomato executive Deepinder Goyal.
According to Anandan, Surge prioritizes two factors when selecting startups: the caliber of the founding team and their understanding of the problem they aim to solve. Additionally, it focuses on market opportunities, which are also crucial for building large-scale businesses.
Surge companies have collectively raised more than $2 billion in follow-on funding following the program, and more than 75% of startups in the first five cohorts have secured series A rounds, Anandan noted.
“There has never been a better time to start a business in India and be an early investor in India,” Anandan said.
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