ET Startup Awards 2026: And the big winners are…

On August 25, Bengaluru hosted The Economic Times Startup Awards (ETSA) 2026, where top entrepreneurs and business leaders gathered to crown the winners of India's most prestigious entrepreneurship award. Groww, an online investment and wealthtech platform, was announced as the Startup of the Year, continuing the company's impressive streak by joining a list of notable winners that includes Urban Company, Lenskart, OfBusiness, Razorpay, Zomato, Zerodha, Delhivery, Swiggy, Oyo, Freshworks, and Ola.

The ETSA jury evaluated nominees based on executional power, institution building mindset, future promise, and trailblazing journeys. Deep tech ventures were particularly impressive, with the jury appreciating the boldness of companies aiming to solve global problems at a fundamental technology level.

Groww's CEO, Lalit Keshre, attributed the company's success to its ability to retain its startup DNA while scaling, despite facing regulatory challenges. Manu Chandra, founder of Sauce VC, was awarded the Midas Touch prize for his early investments in companies that delivered significant exits. Sauce VC's sale of Innovist to L'Oréal generated an estimated Rs 500-550 crore in proceeds.

In the Woman Ahead category, Pallavi Mohadikar, CEO of Palmonas, and Pallavi Shrivastava, CEO of Progcap, were honored. Palmonas, founded in 2021 by Amol Patwari, has built an omnichannel presence for jewellery, while Progcap, founded by Himanshu Chandra in 2017, provides supply-chain lending to Indian retailers and distributors.

Theranautilus, a deeptech startup co-founded by Ambarish Ghosh, Peddi Shanmukh Srinivas, and Debayan Dasgupta, won the Top Innovator award for its microscopic robots designed to perform targeted, minimally invasive treatments inside the human body. Mukesh Bansal, founder of Myntra and Curefit, praised the founders' patience in developing cutting-edge technology.

Digital wellness platform Habuild, founded in 2020 by Saurabh Bothra, Trishala Bothra, and Anshul Agrawal, earned the Bootstrap Champ title for scaling sustainably without external funding or heavy marketing. Juror Paras Chopra commended Habuild's ability to retain users and help them maintain a rhythm and build habits.