Winners of the ET Startup Awards 2026; Groww vs Zerodha

The Economic Times Startup Awards 2026, held in Bengaluru on August 25, announced Groww as the top winner, receiving the Startup of the Year accolade. A panel of esteemed judges led by Wipro executive chairman Rishad Premji deliberated for three hours to reach this decision.

Founded in 2016 by Lalit Keshre, Harsh Jain, Ishan Bansal, and Neeraj Singh, Groww is now a member of the select group of startups to win the top prize, which includes Urban Company, Lenskart, Zomato (now Eternal), Delhivery, Razorpay, OfBusiness, and Swiggy.

Other winners included Sauce VC's Manu Chandra for the Midas Touch award, Habuild for Bootstrap Champ, Theranautilus for Top Innovator, Pallavi Mohadikar and Pallavi Shrivastava for Woman Ahead, Varaha for Social Enterprise, Mukund Jha for Comeback Kid, Armatrix for Best On Campus, and Armatrix for Juries' views.

The jury members expressed optimism about India's future, noting that at least two of the finalist startups would make it to the Nifty 50 in the near future. They were particularly impressed by unconventional ventures aiming to solve global problems across various categories.

In the contest for the Startup of the Year, Groww and Zerodha were the main competitors. While Groww expanded faster in FY26 and had a larger active-client base, Zerodha was almost twice as large in terms of revenues and profits.

Groww's operating revenue rose 19% to Rs 4,644 crore, and its net profit increased 14% to Rs 2,083 crore. In contrast, Zerodha's revenue remained flat at about Rs 8,800 crore, while its profit grew by 1.2% to Rs 4,283 crore. Both firms faced challenges due to weaker retail trading, tighter rules on futures-and-options, higher securities transaction tax, and the end of exchange rebates.