Sequoia Capital names 23 startups in Surge’s fifth cohort

Surge, Sequoia Capital India’s accelerator program, today unveiled the 23 early-stage startups that were selected for its fifth cohort. The cohort, which is the largest to date, will receive a total funding of US$55 million from Surge and co-investors.

Founders will get around US$1 million to US$2 million of seed capital as well as company-building workshops, a global curriculum, and support from a community of exceptional mentors and founders.

This cohort also features 10 women founders, the most number of such participants since Surge was launched in March 2019.

Majority of the chosen startups are from sectors such as fintech, payments, communications, logistics, and software as a service. Most are also from India and Southeast Asia, with only one startup headquartered in Hong Kong.

Here are the startups:

Absolute

Founders: Agam Khare and Prateek Rawat
Launch: August 2020
Co-investors: LetsVenture and angel investors including Haldiram’s (Vevek Ventures), Nadir Godrej, and Sanjiv Rangrass

Absolute is building a plant bioscience and AI-driven adaptive platform for precision agriculture, aiming to help horticulture growers radically transform yields, grade and nutritional value of produce.

The company uses real-time data and matches it with proprietary personalized farm-level crop recipes to achieve optimal growing parameters throughout the production cycle.

ADPList

Founders: Felix Lee and James Baduor
Launch: January 2021
Co-investors: Angel investors