ET Startup Awards 2026: Nominees for Social Enterprise
With this category, we intend to recognise the startup that best embodies the ‘double bottomline’ model, one that combines profits with the public good.
The Economic Times Startup Awards are back for their 12th edition, and this year's nominees for the Social Enterprise category have been announced. This category celebrates startups that excel in the "double bottom line" model, balancing profits with public good.
Among the nominees are Padcare Labs, founded in 2018 by Ajinkya Dhariya in Pune. This company collects and recycles used sanitary pads to prevent them from ending up in landfills or being handled by untrained waste workers. Their recycled pads are transformed into plastic plant pots and paper pulp.
Another standout is Cornext, established in 2015 by Madhav Kshatriya and Mohammed Feroz Ahmed in Hyderabad. Cornext provides affordable silage baler machines to dairy farmers, helping address India's fodder shortage during dry seasons. The company's silage, made from crops like maize and sorghum, is stored for up to 18 months and used as feed.
Karosambhav, founded in 2019 by Pranshu Singhal in Gurugram, is also in the running. This startup builds nationwide networks for collecting and recycling electronic waste, plastics, batteries, and glass. They assist brands in meeting their Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) obligations as required by the environment ministry.
Varaha, a relatively new entrant founded in 2022 by Madhur Jain, Ankita Garg, and Vishal Kuchanur in Gurugram, focuses on carbon removal projects with smallholder farmers. They help cultivate 1-2 hectare plots adopt sustainable farming practices while generating verified carbon credits for sale to global companies seeking emission offsets.
Lastly, CureBay, founded in 2020 by Priyadarshi Mohapatra, Shobhan Mahapatra, and Sanjay Swain in Bhubaneswar, has created a hybrid healthcare network across rural and tribal India. Combining tech-enabled eClinics with a large on-ground workforce, they deliver doctor consultations, diagnostics, and medicines to remote villages in Odisha, Jharkhand, and Chhattisgarh.
Written by urgent.news from Economic Times Tech's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
