Winners of The ET Startup Awards to be feted today

On Friday, Bengaluru will host the 12th edition of The Economic Times Startup Awards (ETSA), celebrating the winners of India's startup scene. Union Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal will be the event's honored guest, with a focus on India's vibrant startup ecosystem. Goyal will discuss the government's role in fostering this growth during his speech.

Groww cofounder and CEO Lalit Keshre and Meesho cofounder and CEO Vidit Aatrey will share their experiences transitioning from startups to multi-billion-dollar enterprises. Groww listed on the bourses in November 2025, boasting a market capitalization of approximately $12.5 billion. Meesho followed suit in December 2025, with a market value exceeding $10 billion.

ETSA has chronicled India's entrepreneurial journey over the past decade, recognizing the resilience, innovation, and ambition driving the ecosystem. This year, the spotlight will shift towards deeptech and physical hardware as startups tackle longer-term challenges.

Accel's Prashanth Prakash will discuss India's hard-tech ambitions with Pixxel's Kshitij Khandelwal, BrainSight AI's Laina Emmanuel, and Agrani Labs' Dheemanth Nagaraj. The jury, chaired by Wipro's Rishad Premji, selected winners across eight categories after a rigorous deliberation on August 25. Manu Chandra from Sauce VC won the Midas Touch award for his early-stage consumer-focused investments.

Habuild, an online yoga platform, was named Bootstrap Champ, while Varaha, a climatetech startup, took the Social Enterprise award. Pallavi Mohadikar from Palmonas and Pallavi Shrivastava from Curefit shared the Woman Ahead category, while Theranautilus, a deeptech startup, was named the Top Innovator. Armatrix won the Best on Campus award, and Mukund Jha, cofounder of coding startup Emergent, was honored as the Comeback Kid.