Surge 11 unveiled: 23 startups, AI in spotlight

Venture capital firm Peak XV on Thursday announced the launch of the 11th cohort of its early-stage startup programme, Surge, featuring 23 startups from India and the Asia-Pacific region. The cohort includes ventures led by notable figures such as cricketer Sachin Tendulkar, Olympic medalist Grant Brits, and several industry veterans.

Surge 11 is the firm’s most AI-focused cohort to date, with 12 of the 23 startups building AI-driven solutions across sectors including manufacturing, semiconductors, finance, and consumer marketing. The remaining startups comprise four fintech ventures, four consumer brands, and three companies focused on infrastructure and developer tools. The programme aims to nurture early-stage startups by providing mentorship, seed capital, and operational guidance to help them scale and drive innovation across industries.

Launched in 2019, the Surge programme has grown into one of the region’s prominent seed-stage platforms. To date, more than 170 startups have participated, collectively raising over USD 3 billion in follow-on funding. The top ten companies from previous cohorts generate over USD 1 billion in annual revenues. The programme focuses on the seed stage, where startups validate their product-market fit, build initial traction, and prepare for scaling.

Notable founders in this cohort include Tendulkar, co-founding Ten x You, a sportswear brand focused on play and performance, alongside Karthik Gurumurthy, who scaled Swiggy’s Instamart to USD 1 billion in revenue, and Karan Arora. Olympic swimming medalist Grant Brits leads AIR Trading, an AI-powered trading platform, while Rishi Kedia co-founded Pre6, an AI platform for manufacturing. Other participants include Siddhant Jayakumar, formerly with Google DeepMind, leading Finster, an AI venture targeting financial services; Akanksha Jagwani and Avni Agarwal, developing SixSense, an AI-driven semiconductor manufacturing platform; Bilal Abou-Diab and Sami Abdul Hadi, co-founders of Vault Wealth, the first Middle East-based fintech startup in Surge; and Jeff Hara and Neha Mittal, former growth leaders at Pinterest and Twitter, launching Just AI, a platform for personalised marketing using artificial intelligence.

The programme offers seed capital, mentorship, and operational guidance across product development, sales, marketing, organisational culture, and fundraising. A key feature of Surge is its founder immersion experience, which allows participants to interact directly with prominent tech leaders and entrepreneurs. Previous sessions have included OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang, and Workday CEO Alumni from earlier cohorts such as Prukalpa Sankar (Atlan), Sagar Khatri (Multiplier), Bahadir Ozdemir (Airalo), and Dhvanil Sheth (Skillmatics) will mentor new founders in Surge 11. The programme also brings in global investors, including Doug Leone (Sequoia Capital), Vinod Khosla (Khosla Ventures), and Chetan Puttagunta (Benchmark), to guide startups on scaling and fundraising. The cohort will conclude with an international immersion in the United States.

Focused on AI, fintech, and consumer innovation, Surge 11 startups aim to transform manufacturing, semiconductors, finance, and marketing, while also expanding digital financial services and consumer products. They are expected to attract substantial funding, generate jobs, and strengthen the region’s position as an innovation hub in the next 2–3 years.

Rajan Anandan, Managing Director at Peak XV, said the cohort showcases the region’s “extraordinary entrepreneurial energy.”