ET Startup Awards: Nominees for Comeback Kid

The Economic Times Startup Awards are set to honor the 12th edition, with a special spotlight on the Comeback Kid category. This category recognizes entrepreneurs who have survived failure to rebuild or launch more successful businesses.

Among the nominees are SolarSquare, a Mumbai-based full-stack residential rooftop solar company founded by Shreya Mishra, Neeraj Jain, and Nikhil Nahar in 2015. Backed by B Capital, Lightspeed, and Elevation Capital, SolarSquare sells and installs home solar systems, assists customers with financing and subsidies, and provides monitoring, after-sales service, and performance guarantees across 20 Indian cities.

Shadowfax, a Bengaluru-based third-party logistics company, is another nominee. Founded by Abhishek Bansal, Vaibhav Khandelwal, Praharsh Chandra, and Gaurav Jaithlia in 2015, it caters to e-commerce marketplaces and direct-to-consumer brands, offering express parcel, reverse logistics, and hyperlocal delivery services.

Emergent, a Bengaluru-based AI app-building platform for non-technical users, is also in the running. Launched by Mukund Jha in 2024 with backing from Creaegis, Khosla Ventures, SoftBank, Lightspeed, and Together Fund, Emergent enables customers to create web and mobile applications through simple prompts, handling coding, hosting, deployment, testing, and debugging for a subscription-based revenue model.

Pratilipi, an Indian-language storytelling platform, is another standout. Founded in 2015 by Ranjeet Pratap Singh, Sankaranarayanan Devarajan, and Sahradayi Modi in Bengaluru, Pratilipi offers free and premium literature, audio, comics, podcasts, and books. It earns through licensing stories for various media and shares revenue with writers.