ET Startup Awards 2026 | Best on Campus: Armatrix slithers to success with snake-like robotic arms

Armatrix, which is building snake-like robotic arms that can navigate confined industrial spaces, won the Best on Campus award at The Economic Times Startup Awards 2026.

Abhiraj Singh Bhal, cofounder and chief executive of Urban Company and a jury member, said: “For Armatrix, what stood out was the young and dynamic founders building in a space like robotics, which I believe will see a lot of traction.”

Founded in 2024 on the IIT-Kanpur campus, Armatrix began as a research project, with founders Vishrant Dave, Prateesh Awasthi and Ayush Ranjan experimenting with flexible robotic arms in their third year of engineering. The startup aims to tackle a problem it saw across industries: workers still have to enter narrow and hazardous spaces for inspection and maintenance.

“Being recognised by The Economic Times and such an accomplished jury is deeply encouraging for our entire team,” said Dave, the company’s chief executive. “Building robots in university teams helped us take on the challenge of building something in India for the world, right after college. To every student working on a hard, physical problem, starting early is more possible now than ever.”

Also Read: ET Startup Awards 2026: Groww adjudged No. 1; Sauce VC’s Manu Chandra named Midas Touch winner

Initially targeting shipbuilding, with plans to expand into aviation, oil and gas and nuclear industries, Armatrix’s arms can carry cameras and depth sensors for inspection. Future versions will support welding, coating and maintenance.

The startup is currently running paid pilots with industrial customers. It has raised Rs 18.42 crore from investors including Pi Ventures, GradCapital, Boundless Ventures, Inuka Capital, Boost VC, Turbostart, WTF Fund and Emergent Ventures.

For juror Ajit Mohan, chief business officer of Snap Inc, the startup’s clearly defined industrial use case was interesting. “I also like that they have picked a niche with very clear applications. I think the combination of the two really sets them up well for growth in the next few years."

---

Other contenders

Qosmic

A spacetech startup attempting to solve the massive data bottlenecks between space and earth. Its technology aims to enable satellites to transmit data faster and in much larger volumes, serving earth observation, defence, and other space missions.

Panoculon Labs

Builds vision hardware for robots and AI systems. Its Trinet device captures first-person visual data used to train autonomous robots. The startup is also developing AI-powered smart glasses for visually impaired users and enterprise applications.

Dream Aerospace

Develops propulsion systems that help satellites move and maintain their position in orbit, extending their operating life. Its indigenous green-propellant technology is designed as a cleaner alternative to conventional satellite propulsion systems and is initially aimed at the growing low earth orbit satellite market.

Plenome Technologies

Builds AI infrastructure that allows companies to train and deploy AI models on sensitive data without moving the data outside their own systems. It also develops specialised AI applications, including Ashwin AI, a multilingual voice copilot that helps doctors with clinical documentation and data capture.