New Delhi, Oct 23 : Leading investment firm Peak XV's rapid scale-up programme Surge on Monday launched its ninth cohort of early-stage startups innovating in the field of deeptech, artificial intelligence (AI) and other promising areas. The cohort features 32 founders across 13 startups and 'Surge 09' includes two Australian startups, in addition to seven from India and four from South-East Asia. It is the first cohort since Peak XV's rebrand from Sequoia India & Southeast Asia, and forays into greater Asia-Pacific expansion with the inclusion of Australia-based startups, the VC firm said in a statement. 'As we kick start new company-building journeys with our 'Surge 09' founders, it is clear that we are witnessing the incredible growth of AI and deeptech innovation, as well as the abundant talent in these sectors emerging from Asia,' said Rajan Anandan, Managing Director, Peak XV and Surge. In this cohort, Mindgrove and InCore are India's first few semiconductor companies that are poised to play key roles in the country's ambition to become a global semiconductor hub. Mindgrove recently became the first Indian firm to join global silicon IP giant Imagination's Open Access programme. Newtrace is set to reshape the global green hydrogen market through the manufacture of cost-efficient, next-gen electrolysers that can be deployed around the world at record pace. While Ethereal Machines is enabling the production of high-quality precision engineering components via its proprietary multi-axis CNC machines, ZeroK is an AI platform that helps developers troubleshoot production incidents faster. Elivaas is a next generation travel company, reimagining alternative accommodations, vacation rentals and villas in India. Australia-based Relevance AI is a machine learning startup, helping companies build an AI workforce that automates workflows with no code. Mercu is an employee engagement platform for companies to hire, train and engage with their frontline teams, empowering at least 70 per cent of the global workforce that are 'deskless' workers. In Singapore, Pix.ai is dedicated to helping creators produce high quality Anime art through an AI-powered art generator. Horizon Quantum Computing makes software development tools to unlock the potential of quantum computing hardware. Neurowyzr is an FDA-registered healthtech company that specialises in developing state-of-the-art technologies to mitigate early brain decline. Dozer is an open-source data infrastructure platform that helps data scientists and engineers build highly scalable, real-time data APIs in minutes. /IANS