And the ET Startup Awards go to...

Mumbai: A star-studded jury, led by Infosys cofounder and non-executive chairman Nandan Nilekani, will meet virtually on Friday to pick the winners of the 7th edition of India’s most coveted prize for entrepreneurial excellence – The Economic Times Startup Awards (ETSA).

The eleven members of the jury spread across India, the Silicon Valley and Singapore will come together to award the brightest and best entrepreneurial leaders in what is shaping up to be a banner year for the startup ecosystem.

Joining Nilekani on the jury will be Deepinder Goyal, cofounder and CEO of Zomato; Gokul Rajaram, product and business leader at DoorDash; Sachin Bansal, founder and CEO, Navi Technologies; and Nithin Kamath, founder and CEO of Zerodha. Anu Hariharan, partner at Y Combinator Continuity Fund; Amit Agarwal, global SVP and country head, Amazon India; Satyan Gajwani, vice chairman, Times Internet Ltd; GV Ravishankar, MD of Sequoia Capital India; Harsh Jain, cofounder and CEO, Dream11; and Ankiti Bose, cofounder and CEO of Zilingo will also be part of the high-powered panel.


Shortlist of 44 Nominees
ETSA will award founders who have built companies without external funding, ones who have innovated successfully in the social enterprise space and entrepreneurs who have made a comeback. We will also present the highest accolade of them all — Startup of the Year. This year, an additional category has been included to recognise startups that have survived and grown amid the challenges posed by the pandemic in their sectors.

ETSA 2021 is being held in the backdrop of record-breaking investor money flowing into local startups, with as many as 27 new unicorns being birthed this year and a slew of new-age technology ventures taking the IPO route.

ET reached out to more than 100 of the country’s top entrepreneurs, investors, industry groups and other stakeholders to help compile an exhaustive list of India’s brightest entrepreneurial talent.

Subsequently the paper’s editorial team along with knowledge partner Tracxn drew up a shortlist of 44 nominees across nine categories.

It is from this carefully curated shortlist that the jury will pick the final winners of the ET Startup Awards 2021.