FAQs
Surge is how Peak XV backs founders from day zero. We started Surge in 2019 with a simple goal: help early-stage founders build strong foundations for an enduring company.
Since then, we've partnered with 350+ founders building in diverse sectors across the globe, from first check through their scale.
Alongside capital, you get hands-on support from the Surge team across hiring, GTM, product, fundraising and more - with operators who've seen the playbook and are in your corner to run it with you.
Once a year, we also bring the cohort together for an 8-week Immersion - time with the world's most iconic founders and operators, focused sector tracks, and a founder community that sticks around for life.
Surge invests up to $5 million in seed capital in each company through an equity investment. Our investments range from $500-$5M.
Founders will work with Surge team members, mentors, and experts to make tangible progress towards launching or accelerating their companies.
Each company has a dedicated investment advisor who will work with you to define actionable 16-week goals. The team will guide you to lay down the overall strategy, track weekly progress, and connect you to mentors and experts.
A team of specialists, who have deep operating experience in their respective domains of technology, recruiting, marketing, finance, legal/compliance, and fundraising, is on hand to help you. If and when you have specific questions, such as how to scale your technology platform to deal with hypergrowth, or how to most effectively structure your ESOP pool, you may call upon help from these experts. Founders can request for one-on-one office hours with specialists throughout the program.
Founders are also able to tap on the wider community of Surge founders. Your cohort is just the starting point. Connect with founders from prior cohorts through in-person city and sector meetups, Surge reunions, our app, and online events. Build networks, find mentors and form friendships that will stay with you forever. The Community team is also here to help you with any introductions.
It’s never too early to apply to Surge. Early-stage journeys evolve, pivots happen, and that’s exactly why it helps to start the conversation sooner. We work with founders at the idea stage as well, long before things are set in stone.
Companies like Multiplier, Atlan, Skillmatics, Airalo and several others partnered with us early, and many Surge founders were still pre-launch when they applied. If you’re building with audacious ambition, breakthrough ideas, and a relentless pursuit, don’t wait.
Surge is the way Peak XV does seed investing. Founders receive up to $5M in seed capital, along with access to Peak XV’s network, operating expertise and long-term follow-on support as they scale.
The standard accelerator model is often 12–24 week building window with support ending at demo day. Attention is split across 20–40 companies, with limited lasting support.
The Surge model has:
✓ No end date to the platform access
✓ Dedicated partner from day one
✓ Support through the company’s full lifecycle
✓ Focused attention for each company
✓ Access to the Peak XV network and community
Surge follows an open architecture approach, giving founders the flexibility to work with both existing and new investors as they scale. Investment terms for subsequent rounds are independently determined by founders and participating investors.
Surge does not take board seats at the early stage. We believe founders benefit most from staying agile and moving quickly in the early years, with more formal board structures becoming valuable as companies scale and raise larger rounds of capital.
Applications for Surge are open year-round, and founders can apply at any stage of their journey. The team reviews applications on a rolling basis.
Surge looks for founders with deep conviction, unique insight and the ambition to build enduring companies. The team typically evaluates three things: the strength of the founder or founding team, the size of the market opportunity, and, for companies that have already launched, early signs of customer love through engagement, retention and product usage.
Beyond metrics, a big focus is on founder-market fit: why this team is uniquely positioned to solve the problem, and whether they’re building in a large, evolving market with the potential to create a category-defining company.
Surge looks for an amazing founder or founding team, a large addressable market (TAM), and, if the company has already launched, early signs of traction or customer love.
Watch Rajan Anandan break down each of the three components above as he describes the elements that make a great Surge application. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itRmgACM6Nk
No. We partner with founders building generational companies in any sector. We have backed companies that disrupted skincare in India (Minimalist), the world's first and largest eSIM marketplace (Airalo), and quantum computing (Horizon Quantum).
The next cohort kicks off in September 2026. Over the following months, Surge runs focused sessions with operators, founders and industry leaders, combining tactical deep dives with candid conversations on scaling products, hiring teams, navigating GTM and building enduring companies.
This 8-week journey wraps with an Immersion in San Francisco with other early-stage founders in the Peak XV community, and curated visits to iconic companies like NVIDIA, OpenAI, Google, Notion.
While there’s no fixed time commitment, founders share the real value of Surge comes from the long-term relationships with peers and mentors, and direct access to operators and founders who’ve navigated similar inflection points before.
You can write to us at contactus@peakxv.com, or find one of us from the Surge team on LinkedIn and hit us up!