Peak XV Surge announces ninth early-stage startup cohort; backs 13 companies

Peak XV Partners’s scale-up programme Surge on Monday launched its ninth cohort of early-stage startups featuring 32 founders across 13 startups. It is the first cohort since Peak XV rebranded from Sequoia India & Southeast Asia and forayed into greater Asia-Pacific expansion with the inclusion of Australia-based startups. 

According to the company's statement, Surge 09 includes two Australian startups, besides seven from India and four from Southeast Asia.

Surge has shifted its sectoral mix to more advanced technologies from consumer brands and vertical ecommerce. The 13 early-stage startups are from sectors like deeptech, artificial intelligence, advanced manufacturing, and quantum computing.

“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 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, who are leveraging their expertise to chart new ground in exciting, emerging technologies," said Rajan Anandan, Managing Director, Peak XV and Surge. 

Surge 09 is a forward-thinking cohort comprising diverse companies from India, Singapore, and Australia. Not only are these companies spearheading transformative changes within their respective industries, but over half already have thriving cross-border operations with their sights set on the global market, it said. 

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In this cohort, Mindgrove and InCore are India’s first few semiconductor companies, poised to play significant roles in the country’s ambition to become a global semiconductor hub. Mindgrove recently became the first Indian firm to join global silicon IP giant Imagination’s Open Access programme. 

Newtrace is set to reshape the global green hydrogen market through the manufacturing of cost-efficient, next-gen electrolysers that can be deployed globally at a record pace.

Ethereal Machines is enabling the production of high-quality precision engineering components via its proprietary multi-axis CNC machines. On the other hand, ZeroK, an AI platform, helps developers troubleshoot production incidents faster.

Meanwhile, Elivaas is a next-generation travel company, reimagining alternative accommodations, vacation rentals and villas in India.

Australia-based Relevance AI, a machine learning startup, is on a mission to help companies build an AI workforce that automates workflows with no code. Mercu is an employee engagement platform for companies to hire, train, and engage with their frontline teams, empowering at least 70% of the global workforce that are ‘deskless’ workers. 

In Singapore, Pix.ai is dedicated to helping creators produce high-quality Anime art through an AI-powered art generator. Horizon Quantum Computing makes software development tools to unlock the potential of quantum computing hardware.

Neurowyzr is an FDA-registered healthtech company specialising in developing state-of-the-art technologies to mitigate early brain decline. The company is developing solutions to address existing gaps in neurology and brain health.

Lastly, Dozer is an open-source data infrastructure platform that helps data scientists and engineers build highly scalable, real-time data APIs in minutes.