The investment firm Peak XV has selected 18 startups to participate in the 12th cohort of Surge, its early-stage startup accelerator program. This cohort covers areas such as artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, space technology, consumer internet, healthcare, financial services, and music.
Through the Surge program, Peak XV invests up to $5 million in one startup and provides comprehensive support in areas including talent acquisition, product development, engineering, go-to-market strategy, communications, policy, and global expansion.
Since its launch in 2019, the Surge program has supported over 180 startups from 18 nationalities, with the top 10 portfolio companies collectively generating over a billion dollars in annual revenue.
The current cohort reflects three rising trends in early-stage technology: reshaping the consumer experience to meet evolving user expectations; the evolution of AI from a mere feature to a core product architecture; and increasing investment in technologies that solve real infrastructure problems.
Among the consumer startups are Ditto, which aims to take dating beyond swipe-based interactions; Wingit, a beauty platform targeting premium Indian consumers; and GameStock, which applies gaming mechanics to investing.
In the healthcare sector, August AI is featured, combining AI with physician-led primary healthcare and reaching nine million users in 160 countries, alongside Hoola Health, which is developing a pediatric healthcare ecosystem. Additionally, Riffle creates a browser-based platform for music creation and collaboration.
Several startups are focused on building AI-driven products and infrastructure. Alma develops tools for personal computing in an AI-centric world, while Kello builds a platform for human intelligence analysis. Rosella uses AI in commercial insurance brokerage, Kindling creates an operating system for startup storytelling and communication, and Reinforce Labs develops tools for assessing and securing corporate AI systems.
Meanwhile, hiloop creates infrastructure that helps companies train, test, and improve open-source AI models at scale.
The cohort also includes startups focused on physical world infrastructure. Puralink develops autonomous robots for inspecting underground pipelines, and ULOOK creates satellite systems for radio frequency sounding and spectrum analysis.
Rajan Anand, Managing Director of Peak XV and Surge, noted: 'What stands out in Surge 12 is that these founders are building from scratch.' He added: 'We are seeing the emergence of new behavioral models in how people create, shop, date, invest, and receive medical care, alongside fundamental changes in how companies hire staff, insure themselves, and operate. AI is increasingly becoming the product architecture, rather than the product itself.'
The cohort includes both returning founders and seasoned executives. Kello's co-founder, Mona Gandhi, was the first female engineer at Airbnb and previously founded Upraised, while Subramanya Jingade, co-founder, was previously involved in creating AmbitionBox.
Reinforce Labs founder Anish Das Sharma holds a Ph.D. from Stanford University, previously created a company acquired by Airbnb, and later led AI and machine learning teams at Google. Alma's founders, Nishit Shadagopan and Vinod Ganesan, previously worked at Microsoft Research before becoming lead engineers at Sarvam AI. GameStock founder Antoine Mystico is a serial entrepreneur and former professional baseball player, and ULOOK's founders have collaborated on more than a dozen satellite missions. Hoola Health founder Diksha Senguttuvan grew up in a family that ran hospitals, and Puralink founder Harrison Crowe-Maxwell turned university research on robotic pipe inspection into a patented company technology.