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Today, the 12th edition of The Economic Times Startup Awards (ETSA) will commence in Bengaluru, with an elite jury led by Wipro’s Rishad Premji convening to select the country's most outstanding startups. The distinguished panel includes Vijay Shekhar Sharma (Founder & CEO, Paytm), Mukesh Bansal (Co-founder, Myntra, Curefit), Sachin Bansal (Co-founder, Flipkart, Navi), Mithun Sacheti (Co-founder, CaratLane), Nandita Sinha (CEO, Swiggy Instamart), Ajit Mohan (Chief Business Officer, Snap Inc.), Irina Ghose (MD, Anthropic India), and Paras Chopra (Founder, Wingify, Lossfunk).

Over the past dozen years, ETSA has become a prominent platform for showcasing new-age industries, highlighting Gen Z innovations, and recognizing entrepreneurs who have built their successes from scratch. The Startup of the Year award remains the most coveted accolade of the event.

Earlier, we reported on the nominees for the eight categories of ETSA. For instance, Lenskart shares were sold by SoftBank, a Japanese investment firm, amounting to Rs 2,888 crore ($300 million) through a block deal. Peyush Bansal, CEO of Lenskart, confirmed the transaction.

Meanwhile, Y Combinator, a renowned startup accelerator, has cashed out nearly Rs 970 crore from Meesho, a leading e-commerce platform in India. This marks a significant exit from its India portfolio and solidifies Meesho's position in the market.