Surge FAQs

Surge is a seed platform for company builders. Watch this video where Peak XV Managing Director Shailendra Singh talks about why we launched Surge in 2019.

Surge is a 16-week program, which is delivered through a mix of in-person and online group sessions. Founders typically spend three to four days together, in person, at the start and end of the program, and also attend group online sessions every Thursday in between those in-person sessions. There are also optional operator-led studio sessions on specific company building topics on key weekdays when Surge is in session. To read more about the content that’s covered during Surge, visit the ‘how it works’ page on our website. 

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.

Surge is intentionally small and curated. Each Surge cohort usually has between 10 to 20 companies. There have occasionally been larger cohorts with more than 20 companies.

Surge companies are usually building for, or out of India, Southeast Asia, and Australia. We’ve also had founders based in other countries given the remote and distributed nature of company building these days.

Surge will invest up to $3 million of seed capital in all participating companies in the form of equity.

Yes. Surge is open to syndicating with other existing or new investors.

Once a year, Surge holds an investor week, called UpSurge, designed to help founders raise more capital from a curated set of investors. Terms will be set by investors participating in the round.

Around 80% of Surge companies have co-investors. Some companies had angel investors, and a few had even or had raised a seed round before they came to Surge. The intent at Surge is to collaborate with the wider ecosystem. The program is designed to make room for other investors with a collaborative approach to company building. 

Surge set up this open architecture framework because it is what’s best for founders, and the team remains committed to this philosophy.

There’s no one-size approach to this. Equity is decided on a company-by-company basis and depends on several factors such as the stage and size of a business. The terms and investor rights are common for all Surge companies.

Founders have the opportunity to present their businesses to a larger set of venture and strategic corporate investors during UpSurge, which will consist of a series of networking mixers and one-on-one meetings.

There is no high-stakes, high-stress ‘capital auction’ style demo day. This week is designed to give you the opportunity to make connections, build relationships, and find prospective partners who will be with you for the long term.

Surge founders can participate in any UpSurge. They don’t need to participate right after the program, for example. They can join a future UpSurge, whenever they are ready to raise their Series A.

There are no program fees. Surge is an application-based program. If a startup is accepted to Surge, they will receive capital, combined with a 16-week company-building program. We would like to see founders bring their time, commitment, and a learning mindset to the program.

In a nutshell, 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.

Surge does not take board seats. Surge believes that founders should have board members once they raise significant amounts of capital, not at the very early stage. That said, every Surge startup has a dedicated investment advisor who will guide the founders on every aspect of company building, from ideating on product, to scaling a tech org, thinking through go-to-market strategy, and more.

Yes. Surge is open to syndicating with other existing or new investors.

Once a year, Surge holds an investor week, called UpSurge, designed to help founders raise more capital from a curated set of investors. Terms will be set by investors participating in the round.

Around 80% of Surge companies have co-investors. Some companies had angel investors, and a few had even or had raised a seed round before they came to Surge. The intent at Surge is to collaborate with the wider ecosystem. The program is designed to make room for other investors with a collaborative approach to company building.

Surge set up this open architecture framework because it is what’s best for founders, and the team remains committed to this philosophy.

We are deeply interested in startups that are leveraging technology to go after large, addressable markets.

Surge is sector agnostic and partners with companies who are tech-enabled, across a very wide range of sectors including, but not limited to, AI, SaaS, DevTools, cybersecurity, DeepTech, advanced manufacturing, climate tech, FinTech, consumer brands, vertical commerce, B2B, agritech, digital health, and EdTech.

For pre-launch or newly launched companies, the focus is on founder-market fit, i.e. ‘Why is this the right founder in this sector to be launching this business? What is the founder’s vision? Are they addressing a deeper pain point? Do they have any unique insights into the problem they are solving? What is the size of the market?’

For newly launched companies the focus is on early signs of user love.

The most important aspect is the caliber of the founding team. As with pre-launch companies, Surge looks for strong founder-market fit and large addressable markets. For companies that have already launched, Surge looks for early signs of very strong user love. This can be measured by engagement and retention, product usage metrics, early user feedback, and user reviews. If your company is already monetizing, Surge will look at unit economics to understand the early indications of a viable economic engine.

Surge is open to applications from unregistered companies. However, if your startup is selected for Surge, we will then need you to set up a registered business entity in order to receive the Surge funding as well as for other accounting-related purposes.

You are welcome to apply to Surge again if your application has been unsuccessful in the past. If anything has changed or progressed with your company and idea, we are happy to take another look at your application.

Yes, absolutely! Many of our Surge companies were pre-launch when they applied to the program.

Surge encourages founders who are building for their regions and for the world to apply for the program. In a globalized, digitized, borderless world, it’s expected that many companies will have teams and customers in several places.

Surge has many solo founders and evaluates each startup in the same way as any company applying – regardless of the number of co-founders. If a founder has very deep domain expertise and a great vision for solving a pressing problem, then they should most definitely apply.

There are usually three main reasons we cite as to why a startup may not have gotten into Surge. If any of these factors change, we highly encourage you to apply again for the next cohort.

Watch Rajan Anandan break down the three reasons your startup may not have made it to Surge here.

You should hear back from Surge within six to eight weeks after you’ve applied. The team is quite lean and thousands of applications are received, but it’s very important that we evaluate each one closely and give it the time it deserves.

Surge does not share any pitch decks or materials with anyone external to the Surge and Peak XV team.

We mean characters. It’s important to be able to succinctly describe yourself and your business in just a few impactful words.

Recommendations help the team to get a sense of an applicant’s background, characteristics, and work ethic. Your reference could be from: Any senior business leader, teacher, mentor, manager, advisor or investor. If you’re a student without prior experience, a teacher’s reference is absolutely fine.

Here’s Rajan Anandan explaining who can (and can’t) be a reference for you.

The Surge team would love to be able to meet each and every founder, but since we are a lean team, applications are a way for the team to get to know more companies in a shorter period of time. We do set up in-person (or virtual) meetings with founders who move to the next stage of the application process.

Watch Rajan Anandan talk about why you need to articulate your idea through your pitch deck here.

Please contact us here for any additional information you may have. Or, you can DM us on Instagram or X if you prefer 🙂