Peak XV Partners, the venture firm managing more than $10 billion across markets including India and Southeast Asia, has increased its per-company investment ceiling through Surge, its seed-stage platform, to $5 million from $3 million. Surge 12, the first cohort under the new limit, comprises 18 startups, with Peak XV investing more than $50 million across a group that has collectively raised over $90 million in seed funding.
Managing director Rajan Anandan said the bar for raising a Series A has risen significantly and that the firm is seeing more capital-intensive companies, particularly in deep tech, raising larger seed rounds. He described Surge as Peak XV’s primary route for seed investing and noted that it has become more global with each cohort. More than half of Surge 12’s companies are based in India, yet only five target the Indian market.
AI runs through much of the cohort. Anish Das Sarma, a former Google director who led AI and machine learning teams, founded Reinforce Labs to evaluate, red-team and remediate enterprise AI systems. Hiloop, founded by Jad Ghalayini, Karan Brar and Thomas Boser, offers a post-training platform that helps AI companies adapt open-weight models for specific uses. Alma, from former Microsoft Research and Sarvam AI engineers Nischith Shadagopan M Nand Vinod Ganesan, is building a faster, more affordable personal computing platform.
Other AI-driven companies include August AI, founded by Anuruddh Mishra, which pairs AI with physician-led care for more than 9 million users across 160 countries, and Kello, an AI talent-discovery platform from Mona Gandhi and Subramanya Jingade. Rosella is building an AI-native commercial insurance brokerage, Tribe Money offers an AI personal finance platform, Kindling uses AI to produce startup communications, and Ditto operates as an AI dating matchmaker inside iMessage after raising a $9.2 million Peak XV-led seed round.
Beyond software, Puralink is developing autonomous robots for underground pipe networks, while Ulook builds autonomous satellites for radio-frequency sensing. The cohort also includes GameStock, Hoola Health, Riffle and Wingit, plus three unnamed startups working in education, applied AI and medical products.
Since 2019, when Peak XV operated as Sequoia Capital India and Southeast Asia, Surge has backed more than 180 startups, and its 10 largest companies now generate more than $1 billion in combined annual revenue. Anandan said 50% to 60% of a typical cohort comes from operating roles at established technology companies.
Featured image: Credit: Peak XV Partners
