Peak XV’s rapid scale-up programme for early-stage startups, Surge, has launched its ninth cohort of early-stage startups that include, for the first time, Australia-based companies.
Surge 09 features 32 founders across 13 startups – four from Southeast Asia, seven from India, and two from Australia. More than 75% of the startups are building for global markets, per the announcement.
Cohort 09 marks the first time since Peak XV’s rebrand from Sequoia India & Southeast Asia. It also brings Surge’s curated community of startups to more than 330 founders and at least 140 companies across more than 16 sectors in less than five years.
The startups in the latest cohort come from India, Singapore, and Australia. Over half of the companies already have thriving cross-border operations with their sights on the global market.
“As we kick start new company-building journeys with our Surge 09 founders, it is clear that we are witnessing the incredible growth of AI and deep tech innovation, as well as the abundant talent in these sectors emerging from Asia,” said Rajan Anandan, managing director at Peak XV and Surge.
The startups in the cohort include Mindgove and inCore, India’s first few semiconductor companies that are said to play significant roles in the country’s ambition to be a global semiconductor hub.
Mindgrove recently became the first Indian firm to join global silicon IP giant Imagination’s Open Access programme.
Singapore-based startups in the cohort include AI art generator Pix.ai, software developer Horizon Quantum Computing, healthtech company Neurowyzr, and open-source data infrastructure platform Dozer.
Australia marks its first entry in the Surge programme with machine learning startup Relevance AI and employee engagement platform Mercu.
Kicked off in 2019, Surge is a pre-Series A programme that invests $1 million to $2 million of capital and helps early-stage founders with mentorship to build their companies. The programme began with an initial corpus of $200 million.
Surge 09 started last week and the founders are going through a 16-week hybrid programme focused on company building.