New Delhi, Nov 25 (IANS): Surge, Sequoia Capital India's rapid scale-up programme for startups, on Wednesday said 17 early-stage startups had been selected for the fourth cohort of the programme.

One of the key features of the programme is that the founders of the selected startups receive $1 million to $2 million early on in the programme so that they could start hiring and building their product right away.

The programme combines a global curriculum and support from a community of exceptional mentors and founders.

"Surge 04" startups are headquartered in India, Singapore, Vietnam, Indonesia -- and for the first time since the launch of the programme, in Australia.

They span a wide range of sectors, including edtech, fintech, SME Tech, DevTools, consumer, healthtech and B2B marketplaces.

More than half the startups in this cohort are SaaS (Software-as-a-Service companies).

The 17 selected startups are Aampe, Epsilo, Hashnode, Kyt, LambdaTest, Let's Dive, Mod.io, Otoklix, PagarBook, Plum, Richpanel, Shipsy, Studyroom, Tazapay, Stealth 1, Stealth 2 and Stealth 3.

Eleven of the 17 companies are building for cross-border markets, pushing beyond their geographical borders from day one.

"'Surge 04' has an incredibly talented and determined group of founders we're proud to partner with. These are the founders who have shown the courage to start up and persevere through an extremely challenging year," said Rajan Anandan, Managing Director, Sequoia Capital India.

"This cohort is a reflection of how the region's startup ecosystem will look and think for the next few years -- possibly impacting entire economies."

Several of these companies are also challenging the status quo in their respective categories, digitising and disrupting traditionally offline industries like logistics, automotive and insurance.

In less than two years since its launch, Surge had evolved into an International community with more than 150 founders spread across the globe.

'Surge 04' will run entirely online till March 2021.