Sequoia's Surge unveils 8th cohort of 12 start-ups across India, SEA

Includes start-ups in climate tech, AI, metaverse, digital health, new e-commerce models

Surge, Sequoia India and Southeast Asia’s rapid scale-up programme for early-stage start-ups, has launched its eighth cohort, featuring 30 founders across 12 companies. As many as 50 per cent of these have at least one female leader.

Surge 08 includes start-ups that are building futuristic products across climate tech, artificial intelligence (AI), the metaverse, digital health, new consumer brands and new models of e-commerce.

“Surge 08 founders are building next-gen products and businesses that have the potential to revolutionise their sectors over the next decade,” said Rajan Anandan, managing director, Sequoia India & Southeast Asia, and Surge. 

Surge 08 includes two health tech companies using AI to improve insurance and medical imaging; two climate-tech companies; a metaverse gaming platform for GenZ; an AI company that’s worked with NASA; and three consumer companies that are building new-age brands in the home decor, food and wedding sectors.

Some of these include Arintra, AltWorld, Bifrost, and Masterchow, among others.

Many of the selected founders are building for global markets, and half of the start-ups in Surge 08 are looking to expand to the US, Europe and Canada.

Surge 08 is currently in progress and the founders are going through a 16-week hybrid programme focused on company building.

Past speakers and mentors in the programme include Sanjeev Bikhchandani (Info Edge), Girish Mathrubootham (Freshworks), Kunal Shah (CRED), Amrish Rau (Pine Labs), Abhiraj Singh Bhal (Urban Company), Kunal Bahl (Snapdeal), Yamini Bhat (Vymo), Doug Leone (Sequoia Capital), Vijay Shekhar Sharma (Paytm), Deepinder Goyal (Zomato), Nithin Kamath (Zerodha), and Vidit Aatrey (Meesho).

Surge’s curated community of start-ups now includes eight cohorts, over 300 founders and over 130 start-ups across more than 16 sectors.