Peak XV (formerly Sequoia Capital India and SEA) announced on Thursday that it has launched the 11th cohort of Surge, which brings together 23 companies working towards reimagining the future for consumers, developers, and enterprises across India, the APAC region, and global markets.
The 11th cohort of the elusive early-stage startup platform comprises 12 AI startups building across verticals, including enterprise and consumer AI, Peak XV said. Alongside them are four fintech innovators, four consumer brands, and three infrastructure and development tools companies.
“AI is leading the charge, not just in enterprise applications but by beginning to transform traditional industries from banking and healthcare to semiconductors and manufacturing. We are also seeing the emergence of new consumer AI companies, which is incredibly exciting. But AI is not the full story—we are now seeing the next wave of fintech companies and exciting new consumer companies in India and our region. This cohort truly offers a glimpse of the future,” said Rajan Anandan, Managing Director, Peak XV and Surge, in a statement.
Peak XV also said that since its inception in 2019, Surge has become one of the most impactful early-stage platforms globally. Surge companies have raised over $3 billion in follow-on funding, with the top ten startups generating more than $1 billion in cumulative annual revenues.
Founder immersion is one of the cornerstones of the Surge platform, according to Peak XV, where founders learn directly from influential figures across the Indian and Southeast Asian regions, as well as globally influential figures. Some of the speakers and mentors in previous cohorts include Sanjeev Bikhchandani of
Info Edge
,
Harshil Mathur
of Razorpay,
Vidit Aatrey
of Meesho, Amrish Rau of Pinelabs,
Kunal Shah
of CRED, Gokul Rajaram, Arvind Jain of Glean, and Aman Sanger of Cursor.
The founder immersion for Surge 11 culminates in the U.S., where founders engage directly with global technology leaders, according to Peak XV. Previous immersions have included Sam Altman at OpenAI headquarters, Jensen Huang at Nvidia headquarters, and operators including Carl Eschenbach, CEO of Workday, and Sridhar Ramaswamy, CEO of Snowflake.
Surge continues to rope in the most sought-after investors to guide founders on scaling and fundraising, including Doug Leone of Sequoia Capital, Vinod Khosla of Khosla Ventures, and Chetan Puttagunta of Benchmark.