AI, Deep tech startups dominate Peak XV's ninth cohort of Surge

Rajan Anandan, Managing Director, Peak XV and Surge.

Peak XV Partners has picked 13 early-stage startups in the ninth cohort of its scale-up programme Surge. A majority – or 10 of 13 – of the startups from Surge 09 are focused on artificial intelligence (AI) and Deeptech, which underscores how important the sectors are for the future of the country, Rajan Anandan, Managing Director, Peak XV Partners and Surge told Moneycontrol.

Surge 09 is crucial for the venture capital firm since it is the first cohort after its rebranding from Sequoia India & Southeast Asia in June. The change of name has however not impacted Peak XV. In fact it has given the investor more freedom to enter newer geographies like Australia, a flexibility it did not fully have earlier.

“After the rebranding we now have a little more geographic flexibility. We have started spending more time in Australia, we’ll do a lot more there. Nothing changes in India though,” Anandan said in the interview to Moneycontrol.

Of the 13 startups under Surge 09, seven are from India, four from Southeast Asia and two from Australia. “We received about 4,800 applications for Surge 09 – the highest number of applications we have ever received,” Anandan added.

Climate tech startups like Newtrace, AI firms like ZeroK, Relevance AI and Pix.ai are part of Surge 09, which began earlier this month. Startups like InCore and Mindgrove, which are building for the Indian semiconductor industry, are also a part of Surge 09.

An AI startup is building in stealth mode during Surge 09.

"...it is clear that we are witnessing the incredible growth of AI and deeptech innovation, as well as the abundant talent in these sectors emerging from Asia. We are thrilled to be at the frontlines of innovation alongside our ambitious founders," Anandan said.

Open source data infrastructure company Dozer, travel tech firm Elivaas, manufacturing company Ethereal Machines, software developer Horizon Quantum Computing, employee engagement platform Mercu and heath tech firm Neurowyzr are other startups which are part of the Surge’s latest cohort.

Surge, which combines up to $3 million of seed capital, is a 16-week long hybrid programme which teaches company building skills to founders. Past Surge speakers and mentors have included Nithin Kamath from Zerodha, Cred’s Kunal Shah, Girish Mathrubootham from Freshdesk and several other founders from across the world.