Meet The Startups From Peak XV’s ‘Surge 11’

VC firm Peak XV Partners has launched the eleventh cohort of its accelerator and incubation programme, Surge. Twenty three startups from India, US and South East Asia have been featured in this cohort, the VC firm announced.12 startups in this cohort are based out of India.

Aligning with recent startup trends, more than half of the early-stage startup cohort features startups hailing from the AI sector. While 12 startups are focussing on building innovations in the AI space, four fintech and consumer brands startups have also been featured. 

Besides, three startups are building infrastructure and developing tools platforms. Important to mention that three startups selected in the cohort are operating in stealth mode. 

“AI is leading the charge, not just in enterprise applications but by beginning to transform traditional industries from banking and healthcare, to semiconductors and manufacturing…But AI is not the full story – we are now seeing the next wave of fintech companies and exciting new consumer companies in India and our region,” Peak XV’s managing director Rajan Anandan said.  

Peak XV launched the Surge program back in 2019, when it was operating as Sequoia Capital India & SEA, and has launched two cohorts each year since. Under this, it combines up to $3 Mn of seed capital with company-building workshops, community access, and a global curriculum delivered by world-class operators. 

Over the years, it has supported startups mainly operating in spaces like AI, fintech, consumer brands, and infrastructure sectors. Notable Indian startups that have featured in the accelerator program over the years include the likes of Plum, Elivaas, MasterChow, Atlan, among others.

Besides Surge, the VC firm manages a capital portfolio exceeding $9 Bn across 13 funds, with investments in over 400 companies across India and Southeast Asia. The firm’s portfolio boasts 31 companies that have gone public through initial public offerings (IPOs) till date.

With that, let’s take a look at the startups selected for Surge 11 cohort

Meet The 20 Startups Backed By Surge 11 

1. AIR Trading

Founded In: 2025

Founder: Grant Brits, Tim Blundy

Headquarters: Sydney, Australia

AIR Trading is developing AI-native intelligent trading systems. The startup aims to build self-optimising trading platforms that use advanced algorithms and AI for efficient market operations.

2. Aretto

Founded In: 2019

Founder: Satyajit Mittal

Headquarters: Pune, Maharashtra

Aretto is a footwear brand for kids that offers growth-adaptive shoes that expand with a child’s feet. It sells its footwear from its D2C platform as well as ecommerce platforms like Flipkart and Amazon. Prior to selection in Surge, the brand raised about $1.3 Mn from early investors like cricketer Hardik Pandya, Videoverse cofounder Vinayak Shrivastav, and Veromint Advisors.

3. Cybrilla

Founded In: 2010

Founder: Anchal Jajodia, Satish Perala

Headquarters: Bengaluru, Karnataka

Cybrilla is an investment tech platform that helps AMCs, wealthtech startups, and fintech platforms launch and scale mutual fund services. Its cloud-based API platform simplifies regulatory requirements and tech architecture. The startup is a SEBI-registered Category I Registrar and Transfer Agent (RTA).

4. Finster AI

Founded In: 2023

Founder: Siddhant Jayakumar

Headquarters: London, UK

Led by ex-Google DeepMind AI researcher Jayakumar, Finster AI is an AI-native platform for finance professionals. It helps analysts automate complex research workflows, accelerate insight generation, and reduce manual work with trusted, secure outputs.

5. Ignosis

Founded In: 2022

Founder: Chintan Sheth, Nirav Prajapati

Headquarters: Ahmedabad, Gujarat

Ignosis is a fintech platform providing financial data intelligence and actionable insights to the BFSI sector. It has raised $1.5 Mn from investors like Groww and LetsVenture.

6. Just Words

Founded In: 2024

Founder: Jeff Hara, Neha Mittal

Headquarters: San Francisco, California

Just Words is an AI-based marketing platform that helps companies optimise and personalise content for emails, push notifications, in-app messages, and websites. It uses AI to replace manual A/B testing with continuous content optimisation.

7. NEAU

Founded In: — NA

Founder: CoCo, Hanson

Headquarters: — NA

NEAU is a premium active and outdoor lifestyle brand that merges advanced textile innovation and proprietary fabric technology with contemporary design.

8. Neude Skin

Founded In: 2022

Founder: Aayshya Jhunjhunwala, Advay Jhunjhunwala

Headquarters: Kolkata, West Bengal

Neude Skin is a skincare brand specialising in milk-based products combined with modern actives like hyaluronic acid, bakuchiol, and vitamin C. It promotes a “Hi-Glaze Skin” concept and focuses on clean, sensitive-skin-friendly formulations.

9. Nirmata

Founded In: 2024

Founder: Ritesh Patel, Damien Toledo, Jim Bugwadia

Headquarters: Santa Clara, CA

Nirmata is an AI-powered control hub for Kyverno, generating, testing, and enforcing policy-as-code across infrastructure. Its platform detects misconfigurations, creates fixes, and helps teams manage security violations with rollback safety and audit trails.

10. OnFinance

Founded In: 2022

Founder: Anuj Srivastava, Priyesh Srivastava

Headquarters: Bengaluru

OnFinance is a GenAI SaaS provider for the financial sector. It leverages its in-house LLM, NeoGPT, to deliver AI copilots for research, relationship management, wealth management, and sales. Recently, it closed its Pre–Series A round at $4.2 Mn, led by Peak XV.

11. Palo

Founded In: — NA

Founder: Harry Jones, Jay Neo, Shivam Pankaj Kumar

Headquarters: Palo Alto, CA

Palo equips short-form content creators with AI-driven workflows that streamline creation, tracking, and iteration, enabling scalable creativity powered by large language models (LLMs).

12. Pre6

Founded In: 2024

Founder: Amod Malviya, Rishi Kedia

Headquarters: Bengaluru

Founded by Udaan cofounder Amod Malviya and ex-CFO Rishi Kedia, Pre6 uses AI to modernise manufacturing processes, improving precision and efficiency. Its AI-powered platform is under development.

13. Qbeast

Founded In: 2020

Founder: Srikanth Satya

Headquarters: Bengaluru

Qbeast is an optimisation engine compatible with Lakehouse platforms like Databricks, Snowflake, and Dremio. It delivers faster, flexible, cost-efficient queries using patented multidimensional indexing.

14. Round1 AI

Founded In: 2023

Founder: Jainam Talsania, Saumil Tripathi, Shreeyash Dharmadhikari

Headquarters: Bengaluru

Founded by GrapeVine’s team, Round1 AI is an AI-powered candidate screening platform where professionals take a single interview to unlock multiple job opportunities over 6 months.

15. SixSense

Founded In: 2018

Founder: Akanksha Jagwani, Avni Agarwal

Headquarters: Singapore

SixSense provides predictive insights for semiconductor manufacturing data. Its no-code platform allows users to build, monitor, and maintain deep learning models for computer vision applications, improving yield and productivity.

16. Supanote

Founded In: 2024

Founder: Samyukktha Thirumeni

Headquarters: San Francisco, California

Supanote AI automates admin operations for behavioral health clinics. It takes session notes, tracks therapy progress, and offers a personalised AI scribe to clinicians.

17. Ten X You

Founded In: 2024

Founder: Karan Arora, Karthik Gurumurthy, Sachin Tendulkar

Headquarters: Bengaluru

Ten X You is an activewear brand founded by Swiggy Instamart architect Karthik Gurumurthy. It focuses on cricket accessories, gear, footwear, apparel, and equipment.

18. Thanks

Founded In: — NA

Founder: Cayley Ostrin, Doron Ostrin, Steven Tesoriero

Headquarters: — NA

Thanks helps brands drive revenue and loyalty with tailored ad experiences and customer rewards.

19. Tonbo.io

Founded In: 2022

Founder: Cream Tang, Tzu Gwo

Headquarters: San Francisco, California

Tonbo is a serverless database solution built on open formats for startups, independent developers, and agent-driven teams.

20. Vault Wealth

Founded In: 2022

Founder: Bilal Abou-Diab, Sami Abdul Hadi

Headquarters: Dubai

Vault Wealth is a digital wealth management platform in the Middle East, offering transparent, institutional-grade investment advisory services.