All roads lead to The Economic Times Startup Awards 2022 in Bengaluru today

India’s most coveted prize for entrepreneurial excellence is back in Benguluru today as entrepreneurs, policymakers and investors gather at the eighth edition of The Economic Times Startup Awards.

Union cabinet ministers Piyush Goyal and Ashwini Vaishnaw along with Karnataka chief minister Basavaraj Bommai will be the guests of honour at the glittering ceremony to celebrate the best of Startup Inc.

The winners in nine categories were chosen by our high-powered jury at a virtual meeting on October 28, 2022.

Razorpay was voted as The Economic Times Startup of the Year 2022 in what was arguably the most contested category. It was chosen as the winner for its technology and product stack along with its potential to take at least some elements of its business global.

In doing so it joined a prestigious list of previous winners, which include food delivery firm Zomato, stock trading platform Zerodha, logistics and supply chain firm Delhivery, online transportation app Ola, enterprise software maker Freshdesk, food delivery platform Swiggy, and hospitality brand Oyo.

Here are all the winners from the nine categories in this year's Startup Awards:

■ Razorpay, the Bengaluru-based online payments solutions company, won top honours as the Startup of the Year
■ Falguni Nayar, founder and CEO of Nykaa, bagged the newly launched CEO of the Year award
■ Shekhar Kirani, partner, Accel, won the Midas Touch Award for Best Investor■ The award for the Bootstrap Champ went to Noise, a smart wearables brand with sizable revenue and profits.
■ The prize for Top Innovator went to Eyestem, a Bengaluru-based cell therapy company.
■ Cloud telephony platform Exotel was chosen as the winner of the Comeback Kid category
■ Solinas Integrity, a deep-tech firm founded at IIT Madras that develops robotic solutions for the pipeline and sanitation industry was adjudged as the Best on Campus.
■ Smita Deorah, co-CEO, Lead, an edtech company, was the winner in the Woman Ahead category
■ Plastic recycling startup Banyan Nation was the Social Enterprise winner.

ET had assembled a jury comprising top Indian and global business leaders, investors and entrepreneurs. Headed by Salil Parekh, chief executive officer of Infosys, it also included:

■ Sanjeev Bikhchandani, cofounder, Info Edge

■ Shailendra Singh, managing director, Sequoia India & Southeast Asia

■ Arundhati Bhattacharya, CEO, Salesforce India

■ Sriharsha Majety, cofounder & CEO, Swiggy

■ Girish Mathrubootham, founder & CEO, Freshworks

■ Satyan Gajwani, vice chairman, Times Internet

■ Hemant Taneja, managing director, General Catalyst

■ Lizzie Chapman, cofounder & CEO, ZestMoney

■ Sahil Barua, cofounder & CEO, Delhivery

Stay tuned for full coverage of the event.