Twenty startups make it to Sequoia Surge's 6th edition from sectors like cybersecurity, payments, EdTech and others

Surge, Sequoia Capital India’s rapid scale-up and mentorship programme for startups, has launched its sixth cohort with 20 early-stage startups. Surge and other investors have invested $60 million in these startups from India and Southeast Asia, the venture capital firm said on January 25.

The programme, called Surge 06, will also have two startups from Bangladesh, which has been a contributor earlier. In addition, startups from Malaysia, Thailand, and Taiwan are making a debut in Surge, this time around. Notably, 13 out of the 20 companies in Surge 06 are also building for an audience beyond their home markets from the start, Sequoia Capital India said.

Surge is Sequoia Capital India’s rapid scale-up programme to support and mentor startups and founders in India and Southeast Asia. The 16-week virtual course will cover fundamentals of company building. The programme ends with an investor week called UpSurge, where founders have the opportunity to network with prospective investors and partners.

In addition, the programme extends seed capital to these startups worth $1-2 million, holds company-building workshops and exposure to a global curriculum.

Startups that will be part of Surge 06 include Airavana by Ashish Verma and Kedar Kekan, BambooBox by founders Ankur Saigal and Divyesh Dixit, Vinayak Aggarwal’s BiteSpeed, and trio Jamsheed Kamardeen, Vaibhav Prakash, and Vishwanath Kollapudi’s startup Blend, among others.

Rajan Anandan, Managing Director of Surge and Sequoia India said, “Many of our companies are building strong, digital foundations that are opening pathways to international markets. We’re excited to be part of our founders’ ambitious journeys, as they work towards becoming global businesses of the future.”

This year, the cohort includes a significant number of software startups focusing on cybersecurity, customer engagement, payments, and more, Sequoia India said. Additionally, several companies are from AgTech, EdTech, FinTech, direct-to-consumer, and e-commerce sectors.

According to Sequoia India, Surge 06 companies are aiming towards tech-driven solutions across several markets and industries. They said that innovation in AgTech and EdTech, is a highlight, due to their focus on streamlining complex agriculture supply chains and digital learning, respectively. 10 Minute School, founded by Abdullah Raied and Ayman Sadiq, and Aqgromalin by founders Bharani CL and Prasanna Manogaran, are examples of such companies.

In its past five cohorts, Surge has mentored startups like health insurance platform Plum, social community platform for women Pankhuri, artificial intelligence finance platform Bright, digital ledger platform for small businesses Khatabook.

Over its course, Surge has evaluated over 10,000 companies. With this cohort, the Surge community now includes 246 founders from 112 startups across more than 15 sectors. As many as 45 companies from the first four cohorts comprising 69 firms have raised follow-on funding.

Past speakers and mentors for the programme include Flipkart co-founder Binny Bansal, Info Edge’s Sanjeev Bhikchandani, Byju Raveendran of education platform BYJU’s, CRED’s Kunal Shah, Zerodha’s Nithin Kamath, and Girish Mathrubootham of Freshworks which recently went public in the United States, among others.