Meet the 8 Southeast Asian startups who will receive US$1-2M each from Sequoia’s Surge programme

Surge, a rapid-scale programme launched this year by Sequoia India for early-stage startups in India and Southeast Asia, has announced the 20 startups selected for its second edition (Surge 02 2019).

These startups, of which eight are based in Southeast Asia, are from a diverse set of industry verticals, including consumer internet, edtech, agtech, clean energy, social commerce, fintech, SaaS, robotics and DTC brands.

Surge is a five-week programme that’s spread over a 16-week period and runs twice a year. The programme combines US$1-2 million of capital for each startup with company-building workshops, global immersion trips and support from a community of mentors and founders.

The programme will be held in four locations — India, Singapore, China, and Silicon Valley,

Below is a short bio of each startup:

Cognicept (Singapore)

Cognicept helps robotics companies get their products out of the lab and into the wilds of warehouses, sidewalks, and hospitals. Cognicept provides Human-in-the-loop (HITL) error handling with telerobotic intervention technology that allows human operators to step in and guide their customers’ robots remotely.

The company’s goal is to make it easier and more economical for customers to deploy robots by reducing errors and downtime. 

Klub (Singapore)

Klub is a fintech play providing growth financing to high-affinity brands. Klub’s investment platform, which utilises financial innovation, community engagement and deep data-driven analytics, provides skin-in-the-game growth capital to entrepreneurs of much-loved brands across sectors.

The startup is currently in stealth mode.

PerroMart (Singapore)

PerroMart is an O2O pet-care company, which aims to help strengthen the bond between pets and humans for a lifetime. PerroMart, which was started in August 2015 as an e-commerce platform, is moving to an omnichannel business model. This will allow it to reach the larger proportion of Southeast Asia’s pet owners who still shop offline, and add new services – such as vet care and grooming – to cover the entire value chain.

Rukita (Indonesia)

Rukita is an experience-focused co-living brand with a mission to make living better for urbanites in Asia’s fast-growing emerging economies, starting in Indonesia. The company works with real-estate owners and partners to transform potential assets in dense and pricey urban areas into fully-serviced Rukita Living experience for white-collar professionals and students.

Storie (Indonesia)

Storie is a one-stop lifestyle community platform that answers consumer questions with useful and inspiring content and user-generated reviews. Storie aims to empower Indonesian people to make better product choices through the best input and most honest and inspiring experiences. 

Users can search and share first-hand experiences, photos and frank reviews to help community members make the right decision about lifestyle products and services.

Yours (Singapore)

Yours is a direct-to-consumer personalised skincare brand that uses technology to do personalisation at scale. All their products are made in Switzerland and are clean, cruelty-free and environmentally friendly.

Also Read: Personalised skincare startup Yours seals US$3.5M, seeks to eliminate skincare guessing game

Airalo (Singapore)

Airalo is an eSIM store that provides travellers with connectivity and freedom through access to over 100 eSIMs from around the world at affordable, local rates.

Chilibeli (Indonesia)

Chilibeli is a community-based social commerce platform that connects farmers, suppliers and consumers through a network of agents to bring fresh, quality products and produce to every household, at affordable prices.

Southeast Asia’s booming internet economy hit the US$100 billion-mark in 2019 and is poised to surpass the US$300 billion mark by 2025, according to a recent 2019 study by Temasek, Google and Bain. This will provide unprecedented momentum to the region’s ecosystem.

“Southeast Asia is at a tipping point. The rate of mobile internet adoption and growth of daily active users is now at a massive scale. This opens up all kinds of possibilities for startup founders with new insights and innovative ideas. There are so many gaps and white spaces in every country in the region — across virtually every sector,” said Rajan Anandan, Managing Director, Surge, at Sequoia Capital India.

“For mission-driven founders, who want to build something new, make a difference and have a big impact on your economy, this is your time,” he added.

Applications for Surge 03 2020, which kicks off in March, are now open.

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