Peak XV Partners, one of the most prominent venture capital firms investing across India and Southeast Asia with more than $10 billion in assets under management, is stepping up its financial commitment to early-stage startups. The firm has increased the maximum amount it invests per company through Surge, its flagship seed-stage investing and development platform, as it publicly pulls back the curtain on its newest batch of enterprises, known as Surge 12.
The latest cohort features 18 companies operating across a diverse range of sectors, including artificial intelligence, robotics, space technology, consumer products, healthcare, music, and fintech. Notably, Surge 12 marks the first time the platform is operating under an increased investment ceiling of up to $5 million per company, representing a significant jump from the previous limit of $3 million.
According to figures shared by Peak XV, the venture firm deployed more than $50 million across this newest cohort. Collectively, these 18 companies have already managed to raise over $90 million in seed funding. While the firm declined to disclose the exact figure, Peak XV confirmed that its median investment size per company has also increased alongside the new ceiling. Furthermore, at least three of the startups in this cohort had already secured outside funding—in some instances directly from Peak XV itself—before officially joining the Surge program.
Rajan Anandan, managing director at Peak XV, noted that the macroeconomic and venture landscapes have shifted noticeably over recent funding cycles. In an interview discussing the launch of the new batch, Anandan pointed out that the financial threshold required for startups to successfully raise a Series A round has escalated substantially. Consequently, the firm is witnessing a growing number of capital-intensive startups, particularly within the deeptech sector, that require larger pools of capital even at the earliest seed stage.
A Growing Global Footprint
Since its inception in 2019—when Peak XV operated under the banner of Sequoia Capital India and Southeast Asia—Surge has supported more than 180 startups. These enterprises have been founded by entrepreneurs representing more than 18 nationalities, reflecting a broad geographic spread. According to Peak XV, the 10 largest companies to emerge from its historical cohorts now generate more than $1 billion in combined annual revenue.
Anandan noted that Surge has steadily evolved to become more global with each successive cohort. The Surge 12 group features founders and businesses stretching geographically from San Francisco to Sydney. Despite this broader international reach, the structural makeup of the cohort highlights an intriguing dynamic between where companies are built and where they seek to acquire customers. Only five of the 18 startups in Surge 12 are explicitly focused on the domestic Indian market, even though more than half of the total cohort companies are physically based in India. Meanwhile, the remaining 13 startups target global markets from day one.
Describing Surge as Peak XV’s primary engine for seed-stage investing, Anandan emphasized that the relationship does not end with the program. The firm typically remains an investor as portfolio companies advance through subsequent funding rounds, such as Series A and beyond. The founders backed by the program are frequently repeat entrepreneurs, seasoned industry operators, or highly specialized technical experts. In fact, Peak XV estimates that roughly 50% to 60% of a typical Surge cohort is composed of individuals transitioning directly from operating roles at established, mature technology companies.
The scope of solutions being built by the Surge 12 companies is remarkably wide-ranging. The cohort includes ventures tackling AI safety, personal computing, autonomous robots designed to navigate subterranean infrastructure, and specialized satellites engineered to detect radio-frequency signals from low-Earth orbit.
The Surge 12 Cohort
The companies making up the Surge 12 batch span a rich variety of industries, combining technical sophistication with targeted market applications:
Alma was founded by Nischith Shadagopan M N and Vinod Ganesan, who are building a personal computing platform aimed at making computer utilization faster and more affordable. Prior to starting Alma, the founders worked at Microsoft Research and served as founding engineers at Sarvam AI, a Bengaluru-based startup focused on developing foundational AI models for Indian languages.
August AI, founded by Anuruddh Mishra, operates a healthcare platform that blends artificial intelligence with physician-led clinical care. Mishra, an alumnus of IIT-BHU, launched the company in 2022 following a personal medical misdiagnosis. The platform has since expanded to reach over 9 million users across 160 countries.
Ditto is an AI dating matchmaker integrated directly into iMessage, designed to help college students transition digital introductions into real-world, in-person connections. Founded by UC Berkeley dropouts Allen Wang and Eric Liu, the company had previously secured $9.2 million in a Peak XV-led seed round announced earlier in the year.
GameStock brings competitive gaming mechanics into the realm of financial markets, transforming traditional investing and trading into an interactive, competitive experience. The startup was founded by Antoine Mistico, Easton Dana, and Vivek Indlebele Narasimha Prasad, with Mistico bringing experience as a two-time founder and former professional baseball player.
HiLoop provides a post-training platform that helps enterprise AI companies adapt general-purpose open-weight models for specific, customized use cases. The founding team includes former Reducto engineers alongside a Cambridge computer science PhD who completed his doctorate at the age of 24, with Jad Ghalayini, Karan Brar, and Thomas Boser leading the charge.
Hoola Health focuses on comprehensive care for children and their families, consolidating consultations, vaccinations, medicines, diagnostics, developmental therapy, and dental services onto a single unified platform. Founder Deeksha Senguttuvan grew up immersed in the healthcare sector, as her family built and operated a prominent hospital group.
Kello is developing an AI-driven talent-discovery platform that evaluates candidates based on their underlying potential and professional trajectory rather than depending primarily on traditional credentials. Co-founder Mona Gandhi states she was Airbnb’s first female engineer and previously founded Upraised, while co-founder Subramanya Jingade previously launched AmbitionBox.
Kindling is constructing what its founders describe as a "storytelling operating system" tailored for technology startups. Led by Adam Miller and Sachin Shah, the company leverages AI to assist early-stage firms in developing, scaling, and producing their external communications and content strategies.
Puralink is engineering autonomous robots capable of navigating complex underground pipe networks. Co-founder Harrison Crowe-Maxwell has been building robots since childhood and successfully translated university research into the patented drive technology that powers the startup, working alongside co-founders Shyeon Delnawaz and Thien “Long” Tran.
Reinforce Labs is building developer tools designed to evaluate, red-team, and remediate enterprise artificial intelligence systems. Founder Anish Das Sarma previously launched a company that was acquired by Airbnb and later served as a director at Google, where he managed machine learning and AI teams.
Riffle offers a browser-based platform tailored for musicians, enabling them to create, collaborate on, and share music seamlessly without constantly switching between fragmented software tools during the creative workflow. The platform is built by Anurag Choudhary and co-founder deo.
Rosella is constructing an AI-native commercial insurance brokerage designed specifically for U.S. businesses, automating historically manual workflows involved in sourcing and placing commercial coverage. Founded by Chris Dwyer and Sean Stuart, the company secured approximately $2.5 million in a pre-seed round led by Peak XV and Intact Private Capital earlier this year.
Tribe Money delivers an AI-powered personal finance platform that assists everyday users in tracking expenditures, researching potential investments, and making informed financial decisions. The startup was founded by Himanshu Arora and Nikhil Shanker.
ULOOK is developing autonomous satellite systems dedicated to radio-frequency sensing and spectrum intelligence for global enterprise and institutional customers. Its founders, Adheesh Boratkar and Siddhesh Ravindra Naik, have collective professional experience working on more than 12 satellite missions. ULOOK had previously raised roughly $2.3 million in seed funding from growX Ventures and InfoEdge Ventures prior to entering the Surge program.
Wingit targets India’s rapidly expanding premium consumer segment with a specialized beauty platform. Founded by Nikunj Kothari and Saksham Khandelwal, the startup focuses on improving how consumers discover, evaluate, and purchase higher-end beauty and personal care products.
In addition to these publicly disclosed companies, three other startups within the Surge 12 cohort have yet to reveal their specific names or products. According to Peak XV, these undisclosed ventures are currently operating in the fields of education, applied artificial intelligence, and medical products.
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