Spark, Peak XV’s fellowship for female founders, has announced their latest cohort with 14 companies and 16 female founders.
Spark said in a statement on Monday that this cohort includes four companies building AI solutions in travel, fraud detection, wholesale trade and ecommerce.
Another four are focused on Healthcare, and the remaining companies are building software as a service (SaaS), business to business (B2B), and consumer businesses.
The Spark Fellowship is a four-month long program that includes a $100,000 equity-free grant.
It is open to all female founders who are in the early stages of starting up.
Founders will get access to domain knowledge, mentorship, a curated community of female founders and exclusive events.
Each startup will also receive over $1 million in perks from other companies from cloud credits to devtools, analytics and much more.
Spark’s curated community of startups now includes three cohorts, 48 founders and 41 startups across 10+ sectors in less than three years.
Mentors for the program include Peak XV’s Managing Directors Shailendra Singh, Sakshi Chopra, Mohit Bhatnagar, GV Ravishankar, and Rajan Anandan. Founder-mentors include
Mamaearth’s Ghazal Alagh and Varun Alagh, Clevertap’s Anand Jain, Wakefit’s Chaitanya Ramalingegowda, Vivek Ramachandran and others.
“Out of the many applications we received for this cohort of Spark, these 16 founders really impressed us with their ambition, first principles thinking and rich operating experience,
“Many of them are second-time founders. We’re excited to see them develop into leaders of tomorrow,” said Sakshi Chopra, Managing Director, Peak XV.
Four companies focusing on artificial intelligence (AI) include RaptorX.ai, an AI-powered fraud detection and prevention platform helping businesses assess cyber risks; FOBOH, an AI-enabled digital platform that helps food and beverage wholesalers scale sustainably, reduce waste, and get paid faster; Traverse, building at the intersection of AI and travel; and Wordsworth AI, who are building at the intersection of AI and commerce, to disrupt personalization for e-commerce businesses.
Four companies focused on healthtech solutions include BabyMD, a full-stack paediatric service; Soulside, an AI-powered mental health platform; Evenly, a chain of dermatology clinics offering tailored services; and one company currently in stealth.
Other companies include Profit Peak, a SaaS platform aiming to provide e-commerce businesses with actionable data insights to boost profitability; Fix My Curls, a hair care
brand curated to cater to naturally textured hair; Meritic, helping mid-market companies automate their reporting and analytics; Melvvi, developing handmade and sustainable
lifestyle products; CHOSEN addresses the need for high-performance skin care products with cosmeceutical and nutraceutical offerings; and A-Sourced is building an AI-powered consignment platform.
Peak XV (formerly Sequoia Capital India & SEA) is a leading venture capital firm investing across India, Southeast Asia and beyond.
Over the last 18 years of its operations in the region, Peak XV has grown to manage over $9 billion in capital across 13 funds and invested in over 400 companies.
The portfolio has seen 20 initial public offerings (IPOs) and multiple successful merger and acquisitions (M&As), resulting in $4.6 billion in realized exits so far.