Peak XV Partners Surge Programme Selects 18 Startups for 12th Cohort after Revamp

Peak XV Partners has selected 18 early-stage startups for the 12th cohort of its Surge programme, bringing together companies working across AI, robotics, space, consumer technology, healthcare, music and fintech.

The latest batch also comes with a major change to the programme. Peak XV has increased its investment limit from $3 million to up to $5 million per startup.

The new cohort includes startups from India, the US and Southeast Asia. More than half are based in India, while several are already building products for global markets. Three companies are still in stealth mode and are working in areas including education, applied AI and medical products.

Building New Consumer Experiences

Several Surge 12 startups are using technology to change everyday consumer experiences.

August AI is building an autonomous clinical intelligence platform for primary care, combining AI with doctors. The company says it has already reached 9 million users across 160 countries.

Ditto is creating an AI-powered dating matchmaker that aims to move beyond the usual swipe-based dating experience. Wingit is building a beauty platform for premium consumers in India, while GameStock is bringing competitive gaming ideas into financial markets.

Hoola Health is developing a paediatric healthcare platform covering consultations, vaccinations, diagnostics, developmental assessments, therapies and specialist care.

In music, Riffle is building a browser-based collaborative studio where artists can record, add sounds, work together and share music.

AI Becomes the Main Technology

A large part of the new cohort is focused on startups where AI is at the centre of the product, rather than being just another feature.

Alma is working on an AI-native approach to personal computing. Kello is building a people intelligence engine to help organisations understand and find talent.

Rosella is using AI for commercial insurance brokerage, while Kindling is developing a storytelling operating system for technology startups.

Reinforce Labs is building tools to test, evaluate and improve enterprise AI systems.

Meanwhile, Hiloop is developing infrastructure for post-training open-weight AI models, helping companies run, track and improve experiments at scale.

Taking Technology Into the Real World

Surge 12 also includes startups using technology to solve problems outside traditional digital products.

Puralink is developing autonomous robots that can travel through underground pipe networks. The technology can help infrastructure companies inspect pipelines without carrying out large-scale excavation.

ULOOK is working on autonomous satellite systems for radio-frequency sensing and spectrum intelligence from space. Its founders have experience across more than a dozen satellite missions.

Another startup, Tribe Money, is building an AI-powered personal finance companion that brings financial information together to help people manage their money.

Founders With Strong Experience

Several founders in the new cohort have already worked at major technology companies or research organisations.

Mona Gandhi, co-founder of Kello, was Airbnb’s first female engineer and previously founded Upraised. Her co-founder Subramanya Jingade was previously a co-founder of AmbitionBox.

Reinforce Labs founder Anish Das Sarma holds a PhD from Stanford. He previously built a company that was acquired by Airbnb and later worked as a director leading AI and machine-learning teams at Google.

Alma founders Nischith Shadagopan M N and Vinod Ganesan previously worked together at Microsoft Research and later became founding engineers at Sarvam AI.

GameStock founder Antoine Mistico is a two-time founder and former professional baseball player.

Some founders also have a direct connection to the problems they are trying to solve. Hoola Health founder Deeksha Senguttuvan grew up in a family that built a hospital group. Puralink founder Harrison Crowe-Maxwell has worked on robotics since childhood and developed the startup’s patented drive technology through research into robot movement inside pipes.

Surge Raises Its Bet on Early-Stage Startups

Peak XV launched Surge in 2019, when the firm was known as Sequoia Capital India and Southeast Asia.

Since then, the programme has backed more than 180 startups across different countries and continues to operate as Peak XV’s seed-stage investment platform.

Surge 12 is the first cohort under the new $5 million investment limit. Peak XV said it has invested more than $50 million across the 18 startups, while the companies together have raised over $90 million in seed funding.

Rajan Anandan, Managing Director at Peak XV and Surge, said the latest founders are building their companies from first principles and questioning how existing products and experiences should work.

The publicly named startups include Alma, August AI, Ditto, GameStock, Hiloop, Hoola Health, Kello, Kindling, Puralink, Reinforce Labs, Riffle, Rosella, Tribe Money, ULOOK and Wingit.

Three other companies from the cohort have not yet been publicly named.