Peak XV Partners, one of the largest venture capital firms investing in India and Southeast Asia with more than $10 billion in assets under management, has increased how much it invests per startup through Surge, its seed-stage investing platform, to up to $5 million per company, up from $3 million previously. The new batch, called Surge 12, is the first to operate under the higher investment ceiling and includes 18 companies that have collectively raised over $90 million in seed funding, with Peak XV investing more than $50 million across the cohort.

At least three of the companies in this cohort had already raised outside funding, in some cases from Peak XV itself, before joining Surge. Managing director Rajan Anandan said the bar to raise a Series A has gone up significantly, noting that the firm is seeing more capital-intensive companies, particularly in deeptech, that are raising larger rounds at the seed stage.

Surge has become more global with each cohort, with the latest group spanning founders from San Francisco to Sydney. Just five of the 18 startups are focused on the Indian market, while more than half of the companies are based in India. Since its launch in 2019, Surge has backed more than 180 startups from over 18 nationalities, with the 10 largest companies to emerge generating more than $1 billion in combined annual revenue.

The cohort spans AI, robotics, space, consumer products, healthcare, music, and fintech. Notable companies include a personal computing platform founded by Nischith Shadagopan M N and Vinod Ganesan, a healthcare platform founded by Anuruddh Mishra that has reached over 9 million users across 160 countries, and an AI dating matchmaker founded by UC Berkeley dropouts Allen Wang and Eric Liu.