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Unveiling The Economic Times Startup Awards 2026 high-powered jury
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Hi, it’s Samidha.
We’re back with the 12th edition of The Economic Times Startup Awards (ETSA). However hectic it gets for the ETtech team, the thrill of sifting through the best of Indian entrepreneurship makes up for every late night in the newsroom.
Unmatched prestige: The ET Startup Awards remain the most prestigious set of accolades for Indian entrepreneurs while a lot has changed since the inaugural edition in 2015. The industry has grown from infancy into one where a clutch of former winners, Lenskart, Zomato, Delhivery, Swiggy, are now publicly listed companies. But the mood this year is different. India’s startup economy is navigating a slower pace of development in artificial intelligence, even as the US and China race leaps ahead in the field.
As we unveil the high-powered jury that will pick this year’s winners, it’s likely that jurors will look for founders who can build resilient, frontier technology businesses which can be scaled.
Rishad Premji (Jury Chair) — Executive Chairman, Wipro
Vijay Shekhar Sharma — Founder & CEO, Paytm
Mukesh Bansal — Cofounder, Myntra, Curefit
Sachin Bansal — Cofounder, Flipkart, Navi
Mithun Sacheti — Cofounder, CaratLane
Adwaita Nayar — Cofounder, Nykaa
Ajit Mohan — Chief Business Officer, Snap Inc
Irina Ghose — MD, Anthropic India
Paras Chopra — Founder, Wingify, Lossfunk
Abhiraj Singh Bhal — Cofounder & CEO, Urban Company
Aryaman Vikram Birla — Director, Aditya Birla Group
Satyan Gajwani — Chairman, Times Internet
Why these jurors: This year we went after a specific kind of juror, founders who have built, scaled, exited, and then gone back and built all over again. That’s why the room has Sachin Bansal, Vijay Shekhar Sharma, Mukesh Bansal, Mithun Sacheti and Paras Chopra, with Rishad Premji in the chair.
The process: 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 brightest entrepreneurial talent. This was then distilled by the paper’s editorial team, working with knowledge partner Tracxn to arrive at the final list.
The jury will pick the winners after long deliberations followed by secret voting, when they meet in Bengaluru on August 25.
I also want to use this day to reiterate that the awards are the outcome of many months of hard work by our reporters, news desk, copyeditors, designers and colleagues in the marketing team. I thank everyone for putting their best foot forward to make the awards such a stellar show every year — even as they carry on with their everyday work.
Jury Dossier: The most important component for the jury is the dossier we prepare. This handbook, packed with information that stays confidential with the jury, goes through hundreds of checks and rechecks before it is finalised.
Stay tuned for all the ETSA 2026 coverage through the week leading up to the jury meeting on August 25.
Today, we unveil the nominees in two of the eight categories: Bootstrap Champ, entrepreneurs who have built startups without external funding, and Top Innovator, startups developing transformative technologies.
Aadit Palicha, CEO, Zepto
Zepto blinks on volume push: Quick commerce company Zepto is taking a harder look at its profitability and cost structure, as it looks to make a fresh attempt at going public in a few quarters after failing to secure desired pricing from institutional investors in its first attempt.
Zepto is deviating from its earlier strategy of chasing order volume growth and is instead focusing on average order value (AOV), according to people in the know.
Ola Electric looks beyond scooters: Ola Electric is expanding its battery business from just electric vehicles to a larger energy storage business and has unveiled a three-tier Shakti portfolio that will span homes, commercial facilities and grid-scale applications.
AI-led matchmaking apps attract investors: AI-powered matchmaking startups are drawing fresh investor interest as traditional dating apps struggle to keep users engaged. Marriage-focused platform Knot.dating is in the market to raise $5-8 million, while Bengaluru-based Wavelength recently raised $500,000 in pre-seed funding from Antler.
■ OpenAI upheaval mounts as Sam Altman readies IPO push (FT)
■ Nvidia close to deal to guarantee about $100 billion in credit for OpenAI (The Information)
■ The online shopping trend where you buy nothing (Rest of World)
We’re back with the 12th edition of The Economic Times Startup Awards (ETSA). However hectic it gets for the ETtech team, the thrill of sifting through the best of Indian entrepreneurship makes up for every late night in the newsroom.
Unmatched prestige: The ET Startup Awards remain the most prestigious set of accolades for Indian entrepreneurs while a lot has changed since the inaugural edition in 2015. The industry has grown from infancy into one where a clutch of former winners, Lenskart, Zomato, Delhivery, Swiggy, are now publicly listed companies. But the mood this year is different. India’s startup economy is navigating a slower pace of development in artificial intelligence, even as the US and China race leaps ahead in the field.
As we unveil the high-powered jury that will pick this year’s winners, it’s likely that jurors will look for founders who can build resilient, frontier technology businesses which can be scaled.
Rishad Premji (Jury Chair) — Executive Chairman, Wipro
Vijay Shekhar Sharma — Founder & CEO, Paytm
Mukesh Bansal — Cofounder, Myntra, Curefit
Sachin Bansal — Cofounder, Flipkart, Navi
Mithun Sacheti — Cofounder, CaratLane
Adwaita Nayar — Cofounder, Nykaa
Ajit Mohan — Chief Business Officer, Snap Inc
Irina Ghose — MD, Anthropic India
Paras Chopra — Founder, Wingify, Lossfunk
Abhiraj Singh Bhal — Cofounder & CEO, Urban Company
Aryaman Vikram Birla — Director, Aditya Birla Group
Satyan Gajwani — Chairman, Times Internet
Why these jurors: This year we went after a specific kind of juror, founders who have built, scaled, exited, and then gone back and built all over again. That’s why the room has Sachin Bansal, Vijay Shekhar Sharma, Mukesh Bansal, Mithun Sacheti and Paras Chopra, with Rishad Premji in the chair.
The process: 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 brightest entrepreneurial talent. This was then distilled by the paper’s editorial team, working with knowledge partner Tracxn to arrive at the final list.
The jury will pick the winners after long deliberations followed by secret voting, when they meet in Bengaluru on August 25.
I also want to use this day to reiterate that the awards are the outcome of many months of hard work by our reporters, news desk, copyeditors, designers and colleagues in the marketing team. I thank everyone for putting their best foot forward to make the awards such a stellar show every year — even as they carry on with their everyday work.
Jury Dossier: The most important component for the jury is the dossier we prepare. This handbook, packed with information that stays confidential with the jury, goes through hundreds of checks and rechecks before it is finalised.
Stay tuned for all the ETSA 2026 coverage through the week leading up to the jury meeting on August 25.
And the nominees are…
Today, we unveil the nominees in two of the eight categories: Bootstrap Champ, entrepreneurs who have built startups without external funding, and Top Innovator, startups developing transformative technologies.
Bootstrap Champ
- Suta
- Habuild
- Urban Vault
- Melento
- D’You
Top Innovator
- Theranautilus
- Ethereal Exploration Guild (EtherealX)
- 4baseCare
- QNu Labs
- Agrani Labs
Other Top Stories By Our Reporters
Zepto blinks on volume push: Quick commerce company Zepto is taking a harder look at its profitability and cost structure, as it looks to make a fresh attempt at going public in a few quarters after failing to secure desired pricing from institutional investors in its first attempt.
Zepto is deviating from its earlier strategy of chasing order volume growth and is instead focusing on average order value (AOV), according to people in the know.
Ola Electric looks beyond scooters: Ola Electric is expanding its battery business from just electric vehicles to a larger energy storage business and has unveiled a three-tier Shakti portfolio that will span homes, commercial facilities and grid-scale applications.
AI-led matchmaking apps attract investors: AI-powered matchmaking startups are drawing fresh investor interest as traditional dating apps struggle to keep users engaged. Marriage-focused platform Knot.dating is in the market to raise $5-8 million, while Bengaluru-based Wavelength recently raised $500,000 in pre-seed funding from Antler.
Global Picks We Are Reading
■ OpenAI upheaval mounts as Sam Altman readies IPO push (FT)
■ Nvidia close to deal to guarantee about $100 billion in credit for OpenAI (The Information)
■ The online shopping trend where you buy nothing (Rest of World)
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