{
  "id": 12995221,
  "title": "Startups will crown new champions today at 12th ET Startup Awards in Bengaluru",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/09/startups-will-crown-new-champions-today-at-12th-et-startup-awards-in",
  "topic": "business",
  "section": "Business",
  "published": "2026-10-09T00:30:00.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Economic Times Tech",
    "slug": "economic-times-tech",
    "url": "https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/startups/startups-will-crown-new-champions-today-at-12th-et-startup-awards-in-bengaluru/articleshow/134798886.cms"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "On Friday, Bengaluru will host the 12th edition of The Economic Times Startup Awards (ETSA), highlighting India's vibrant startup ecosystem. Union Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal will grace the occasion as the guest of honor, alongside a distinguished lineup of past and present ETSA winners, nominees, and industry leaders.\n\nTwo notable representatives include Lalit Keshre, cofounder and CEO of Groww, and Vidit Aatrey, cofounder and CEO of Meesho. Groww recently went public and boasts a market capitalization of approximately $12.5 billion. Meesho, on the other hand, made its public debut in December 2025 and now holds a market value exceeding $10 billion.\n\nOver the past decade, ETSA has chronicled India's entrepreneurial journey, celebrating resilience, innovation, and ambition. As the startup landscape transitions into a new phase, focusing on deeptech and physical hardware, 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.\n\nThe 2026 ETSA jury, chaired by Wipro executive chairman Rishad Premji, selected winners across eight categories. Manu Chandra from Sauce VC won the Midas Touch award for distinguished early-stage consumer-focused investments. Online yoga platform Habuild was named Bootstrap Champ, while climate-tech startup Varaha earned the Social Enterprise award. Pallavi Mohadikar, cofounder and CEO of Palmonas, and Pallavi Shrivastava, cofounder and CEO of Curefit, were the first-time joint winners in the Woman Ahead category. Theranautilus, a deeptech startup, was honored as the Top Innovator, while Armatrix, a coding startup, was named Best on Campus, and Emergent cofounder Mukund Jha was recognized as the Comeback Kid.",
  "summary": "Union minister for commerce and industry Piyush Goyal will be the guest of honour at the event, which will bring together a strong mix of past and present ETSA winners and nominees, alongside leading voices from India’s new-economy landscape. Goyal is expected to speak about the government’s efforts to deepen and expand the country’s emerging business ecosystem.",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}