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The ET Startup Awards 2025: Nominees for ‘Startup of the Year’ are here
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Happy Wednesday! We at ETtech have been hard at work to bring you the 11th edition of The Economic Times Startup Awards (ETSA).
A day before our esteemed jury convenes to pick the winners, we reveal nominees for the most coveted category, Startup of the Year, along with Midas Touch.
Background: Launched in 2015 to celebrate startups and the new-age economy, ETSA has chronicled India's entrepreneurship ecosystem over the past ten years. Some of the past winners of the coveted Startup of the Year award, such as Freshworks, Delhivery, Zomato, and Swiggy, have gone on to become publicly listed companies in the new economy. Other winners, such as Ather Energy (Best on Campus in 2016) and Ixigo (Comeback Kid in 2021), have also debuted on the Indian bourses, signalling a robust startup economy.
On the eve of the jury meeting for The Economic Times Startup Awards 2025, we unveil the nominees for Startup of the Year — celebrating breakthrough innovation, top-class execution and fast-paced growth, along with Midas Touch — which recognises the most lucrative exit in the year.
ET reached out to more than 200 of the country's top entrepreneurs, investors, industry groups, and other stakeholders to compile a list of the best entrepreneurial talent. The paper's editorial team then distilled this list to arrive at the final contenders.
Startup of the Year
Read more about the nominees here
Midas Touch
Read more about the nominees here
Who's on the jury: A high-powered jury will meet on August 28 in Bengaluru to pick the winners of ETSA 2025.
Over the past few days, we also revealed nominees for our six other categories: Bootcamp Champ, Top Innovator, Best on Campus, Comeback Kid, Woman Ahead, and Social Enterprise.
Stay tuned for all the ETSA 2025 coverage through the week leading up to the jury meeting to be held on August 28 in Bengaluru.
Rajiv Naresh, CEO, Navi
Fintech firm Navi is betting on Unified Payments Interface (UPI)-linked credit to carve out a larger play in the crowded digital payments space, according to newly appointed CEO Rajiv Naresh, who laid out its growth strategy in a chat with ET.
Tell me more:
Navi entered the UPI market in 2023 with 68 million payments. The numbers have since surged, riding on frequent use cases and seamless integration.
Early mover: Among the first to offer credit lines on UPI, Navi partnered with Karnataka Bank to roll out the product. Banks are now warming up to the idea, with many looking at fintechs to pilot these services. However, large-scale adoption has yet to take hold.
Quote, unquote: “It (credit line on UPI) is a cheaper way to issue credit. Unlike a credit card, the operational costs are lower. Just the physical card itself costs money with UPI; those costs don't exist,” Naresh said.
What's more:
As global artificial intelligence (AI) politics intensify, India and China may find common ground – not on trade, security, or geopolitics, but in regulating AI.
Driving the news: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is headed to Tianjin this week for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit. On the agenda: China's pitch for its newly formed World AI Cooperation Organisation (WICO), a global body to shape the future of artificial intelligence.
Sources told ET that India may offer “cautious support” to the AI body, not by joining it outright, but by signalling alignment on broad principles.
Gaining attention: AI is becoming a key plank of the SCO dialogue. The bloc's 2024 declaration noted the need to develop AI technologies responsibly, while also flagging the ‘willingness of member states to work together to prevent risks’.
Context: India has been positioning itself as a leading voice in AI. Meanwhile, China has been promising to actively promote open-source AI, share technologies, and work collectively to address the global chip shortage. Both were among the 58 countries that signed the first international agreement on the use of inclusive and sustainable AI in Paris in February.
Zomato parent to appeal against GST demands, penalty: Eternal, which owns Zomato, Blinkit, District and Hyperpure, has been served three service Goods and Services Tax demands and penalty orders for the period between July 2017 and March 2020, amounting to over Rs 40 crore. The company said it would file an appeal against the order.
Ola Electric secures PLI certification for Gen 3 escooters: The PLI certification makes the electric two-wheeler company eligible for incentives ranging from 13% to 18% of the determined sales value of its Gen 3 electric scooters until 2028.
Capgemini to acquire cloud services firm Cloud4C: The acquisition deal presents immediate cross-selling opportunities across Capgemini's clients. It is also expected to help the Capgemini Group develop further industry-specific packaged frameworks, IP, and GenAI solutions for cloud management and seamless migrations.
■ Researchers are already leaving Meta's new Superintelligence Lab (Wired)
■ Apple's iPhone 17 launch event is set for September 9th (The Verge)
■ Perplexity says it will give publishers 80% cut of new subscription product's revenue (Axios)
A day before our esteemed jury convenes to pick the winners, we reveal nominees for the most coveted category, Startup of the Year, along with Midas Touch.
Background: Launched in 2015 to celebrate startups and the new-age economy, ETSA has chronicled India's entrepreneurship ecosystem over the past ten years. Some of the past winners of the coveted Startup of the Year award, such as Freshworks, Delhivery, Zomato, and Swiggy, have gone on to become publicly listed companies in the new economy. Other winners, such as Ather Energy (Best on Campus in 2016) and Ixigo (Comeback Kid in 2021), have also debuted on the Indian bourses, signalling a robust startup economy.
And the nominees are…
On the eve of the jury meeting for The Economic Times Startup Awards 2025, we unveil the nominees for Startup of the Year — celebrating breakthrough innovation, top-class execution and fast-paced growth, along with Midas Touch — which recognises the most lucrative exit in the year.
ET reached out to more than 200 of the country's top entrepreneurs, investors, industry groups, and other stakeholders to compile a list of the best entrepreneurial talent. The paper's editorial team then distilled this list to arrive at the final contenders.
Startup of the Year
- Urban Company
- Rapido
- Meesho
- Groww
- Porter
- PhysicsWallah
Read more about the nominees here
Midas Touch
- Ashish Agrawal, Peak XV Partners
- Pranav Pai, 3one4 Capital
- Shailesh Lakhani, Peak XV Partners
- TCM Sundaram, Chiratae Ventures
Read more about the nominees here
Who's on the jury: A high-powered jury will meet on August 28 in Bengaluru to pick the winners of ETSA 2025.
- Amitabh Kant, jury chair, India's former G20 Sherpa
- Prashanth Prakash, partner at venture capital fund Accel
- Kalyan Krishnamurthy, CEO of Flipkart Group
- Sahil Barua, cofounder and chief executive, Delhivery
- Ruchi Kalra, cofounder of OfBusiness and Oxyzo
- Adwaita Nayar, cofounder of Nykaa
- Ghazal Alagh, cofounder of Mamaearth
- Tarun Mehta, cofounder and CEO, Ather Energy
- Harshil Mathur, cofounder and chief executive, Razorpay
- Faraz Khalid, chief executive of Dubai-based ecommerce major Noon
- Satyan Gajwani, chairman of Times Internet
Over the past few days, we also revealed nominees for our six other categories: Bootcamp Champ, Top Innovator, Best on Campus, Comeback Kid, Woman Ahead, and Social Enterprise.
Stay tuned for all the ETSA 2025 coverage through the week leading up to the jury meeting to be held on August 28 in Bengaluru.
Navi eyes credit via UPI to drive growth story
Fintech firm Navi is betting on Unified Payments Interface (UPI)-linked credit to carve out a larger play in the crowded digital payments space, according to newly appointed CEO Rajiv Naresh, who laid out its growth strategy in a chat with ET.
Tell me more:
- The company is on track to process 500 million UPI transactions in August. Each active customer clocks 20 to 30 payments a month, Naresh said.
- While he didn't disclose user figures, Navi is estimated to serve around 15–16 million UPI users.
Navi entered the UPI market in 2023 with 68 million payments. The numbers have since surged, riding on frequent use cases and seamless integration.
Early mover: Among the first to offer credit lines on UPI, Navi partnered with Karnataka Bank to roll out the product. Banks are now warming up to the idea, with many looking at fintechs to pilot these services. However, large-scale adoption has yet to take hold.
Quote, unquote: “It (credit line on UPI) is a cheaper way to issue credit. Unlike a credit card, the operational costs are lower. Just the physical card itself costs money with UPI; those costs don't exist,” Naresh said.
What's more:
- Navi's insurance business has lagged behind its lending and payments arm. Naresh wants to push a sharper direct-to-consumer (D2C) play to change that.
- He's also targeting a 10x jump in assets under management (AUM) from the current Rs 8,500 crore by doubling down on passive mutual funds.
India may lend ‘cautious support’ to China's global AI body proposal
As global artificial intelligence (AI) politics intensify, India and China may find common ground – not on trade, security, or geopolitics, but in regulating AI.
Driving the news: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is headed to Tianjin this week for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit. On the agenda: China's pitch for its newly formed World AI Cooperation Organisation (WICO), a global body to shape the future of artificial intelligence.
Sources told ET that India may offer “cautious support” to the AI body, not by joining it outright, but by signalling alignment on broad principles.
Gaining attention: AI is becoming a key plank of the SCO dialogue. The bloc's 2024 declaration noted the need to develop AI technologies responsibly, while also flagging the ‘willingness of member states to work together to prevent risks’.
Context: India has been positioning itself as a leading voice in AI. Meanwhile, China has been promising to actively promote open-source AI, share technologies, and work collectively to address the global chip shortage. Both were among the 58 countries that signed the first international agreement on the use of inclusive and sustainable AI in Paris in February.
Other Top Stories By Our Reporters
Zomato parent to appeal against GST demands, penalty: Eternal, which owns Zomato, Blinkit, District and Hyperpure, has been served three service Goods and Services Tax demands and penalty orders for the period between July 2017 and March 2020, amounting to over Rs 40 crore. The company said it would file an appeal against the order.
Ola Electric secures PLI certification for Gen 3 escooters: The PLI certification makes the electric two-wheeler company eligible for incentives ranging from 13% to 18% of the determined sales value of its Gen 3 electric scooters until 2028.
Capgemini to acquire cloud services firm Cloud4C: The acquisition deal presents immediate cross-selling opportunities across Capgemini's clients. It is also expected to help the Capgemini Group develop further industry-specific packaged frameworks, IP, and GenAI solutions for cloud management and seamless migrations.
Global Picks We Are Reading
■ Researchers are already leaving Meta's new Superintelligence Lab (Wired)
■ Apple's iPhone 17 launch event is set for September 9th (The Verge)
■ Perplexity says it will give publishers 80% cut of new subscription product's revenue (Axios)
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