Surge invests in 12 startups across Southeast Asia and India

Surge, Sequoia India and Southeast Asia’s rapid scale-up program for early-stage startups, has announced the launch of its eighth cohort that features 30 inspiring founders coming from across twelve companies.

Surge 08 includes startups that are building exceptional products across climate tech, Artificial Intelligence (AI), the Metaverse, new consumer brands, digital health, and new models of e-commerce. At present, Surge’s curated community of startups already includes eight cohorts, 300+ founders and 130+ startups across 16+ sectors.

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

At least half of the Surge 08 startups already have at least one female founder. These include two medical doctors from Indonesia who are leveraging technology to democratise access to health and wellness services and an AI and natural language processing PhD holder that focuses on healthcare.

Rajan Anandan, Managing Director at Sequoia India and Southeast Asia and Surge said that the Surge 08 founders are building next-gen products and businesses that have the potential to revolutionise their sectors over the next decade.

“These diverse set of founders each bring with them unique experiences and expertise to create ambitious and differentiated products and platforms to the problems they are tackling – and we are excited to be a part of their early company-building journeys,” Anandan added.

In a statement, the company said that many of the Surge 08 founders have been preparing for the global market from day one of their operations.

At present, about half of the startups in Surge 08 are looking to expand their operations into the US, Europe and Canada. In order to help them achieve their goals, Surge 08 founders are currently undergoing a 16-week hybrid program that is focused on company building initiatives.