Top entrepreneurs and business leaders came together in Bengaluru on August 25 to pick the winners of The Economic Times Startup Awards (ETSA) 2026.Today, we take great pleasure in announcing the winners of the 12th edition of India’s most coveted award for entrepreneurship.ET Startup Awards 2026: Groww adjudged No. 1; Sauce VC’s Manu Chandra named Midas Touch winnerOnline investment and wealthtech platform Groww bagged the coveted Startup of the Year award at ETSA 2026, the 12th edition of India’s most prestigious award for entrepreneurship.In a discussion that lasted for more than three hours, a high-powered jury led by Wipro executive chairman Rishad premji picked the company as the Startup of the Year.Joining winners: With the win, Groww joins the likes of Urban Company, Lenskart, OfBusiness, Razorpay, Zomato, Zerodha, Delhivery, Swiggy, Oyo, Freshworks and Ola, all of which won the biggest honour over the 11-year history of the awards.Fifty shades of nifty growth: ETSA jury spots next giantsThe jury analysed executional power, institution building mindset, future promise and trailblazing journeys of nominees to decide on winners. That was a demanding task given the track records and growth momentum of top contenders.Win for deeptech: Sometimes the boldest of bets are the triggers to a whole new wave of inspiration. Members of the jury were particularly impressed with the presence of unconventional ventures aiming to solve global problems across categories that offered informed optimism about India’s tech future.Juror Paras Chopra said, “It’s also great to see people who are still in their 20s working on deeptech. They are not just building standard companies; they are working at a fundamental technology level.”Startup of the Year: Street-smart Groww outruns regulatory odds to claim top prizeGroww took home the most coveted honours of ETSA, the Startup of the Year prize. The star-studded jury was impressed by the fintech’s execution in a competitive, tightly regulated business, profitability, successful public listing and the ability to retain its startup DNA at scale.The jury arrived at the decision after a long debate over six nominees, ecommerce marketplace Meesho, logistics firm Porter, spacetech startup Skyroot Aerospace, urban mobility major Rapido and sovereign AI startup Sarvam. Juror Sachin Bansal, cofounder of Flipkart and Navi, said Groww “outexecuted” everyone in the space.“When we started Groww, the hard problem was not building another investing app; it was removing the fear and complexity that kept many Indians away. A decade later, access is only the first layer,” CEO Lalit Keshre told us.Midas Touch: Sauce VC’s winning recipe earns Manu Chandra the prizeSauce VC founder and managing partner Manu Chandra won the Midas Touch prize, one of the most high profile honours of ETSA. Jurors expressed strong and divergent views on the contenders, finally selecting Chandra for his record of backing companies early and delivering significant exits.Sauce’s sale of portfolio company Innovist to L’Oréal generated an estimated Rs 500-550 crore in proceeds, making it the biggest consumer-sector deal of the year. One of the jurors called Chandra a self-starter whose reputation grew among founders in the consumer brands ecosystem.Woman Ahead: Palmonas, Progcap share crown for building across sectorsThis year, too, Woman Ahead remained one of the most competitive categories. After fierce discussions, the jury decided to select two winners: Pallavi Mohadikar, cofounder and chief executive of demi-fine jewellery brand Palmonas, and Pallavi Shrivastava, cofounder and CEO of supply-chain lending platform Progcap.Jurors highlighted how the two entrepreneurs built high-impact companies in very different domains.Mohadikar cofounded Palmonas with Amol Patwari in 2021. The brand has since built an omnichannel presence and launched a wide range of stock-keeping units across bracelets, necklaces, earrings and other categories.Shrivastava’s stints with the World Bank, International Finance Corp and in supply-chain finance showed her that many Indian retailers and distributors lacked access to formal credit. She cofounded Progcap with Himanshu Chandra in 2017 to address this gap.Top Innovator: Deeptech startup Theranautilus’ micro robots score big winDeeptech startup Theranautilus won the Top Innovator award. The startup, founded by Ambarish Ghosh, Peddi Shanmukh Srinivas, and Debayan Dasgupta, wowed the jury for its work on microscopic robots that can navigate inside the human body to perform targeted, minimally invasive treatments.The jury members said the hardest part was weighing the promise of cutting-edge technology against evidence of commercial traction.Mukesh Bansal, founder of Myntra and Curefit, said true innovation takes time, and the founders’ patience stood out to him. Many of the companies we evaluated today have spent years quietly building, refining their technology and staying the course, patiently waiting for monetisation and scale,” he said.Bootstrap Champ: Habuild stretches profits without bending to VC cashDigital wellness platform Habuild won the ET Startup Awards’ Bootstrap Champ title for scaling sustainably without external funding or heavy marketing spend.Founded in 2020 by Saurabh Bothra, Trishala Bothra and Anshul Agrawal, the Nagpur-based company focuses on making yoga accessible through digital routines.A juror noted that Habuild has been able to retain its users by helping them maintain a rhythm and build a habit. Wingify and Lossfunk founder Paras Chopra appreciated the startup’s profit margins, and “the fact that they’ve been able to scale the business without online spending.”Comeback Kid: Mukund Jha returns stronger with AI betMukund Jha won the Comeback Kid recognition, recognised by the jurors for moving from Dunzo’s collapse to building Emergent, an AI software-creation platform. Juror Sachin Bansal said the category lauded founders who survived a severe setback and returned stronger.Jha was cofounder and chief technology officer at hyperlocal delivery startup Dunzo. The Reliance-backed company delayed salaries, reduced staff, scaled down operations and failed to secure sufficient new capital. It ultimately went offline in 2025.In a striking comeback, after leaving Dunzo in 2023, Jha cofounded Emergent with his brother, Madhav. The vibe coding platform recently raised $130 million at a $1.5 billion valuation, and has reported a $120-million annualised revenue run-rate.Social Enterprise: Varaha delivers carbon dollars to smallholder farmersVaraha won the Social Enterprise category for helping small farmers earn from carbon markets while adopting climate-resilient farming practices.Founded in 2022 by Madhur Jain, Ankita Garg and Vishal Kuchanur, the company focuses on helping farmers managing small plots which face erratic weather, weaker soil health and higher input costs.Varaha uses proprietary AI and satellite-based technology to measure and verify these outcomes across millions of fragmented farms. Varaha then sells verified carbon credits to global companies including Google, Microsoft, Lufthansa, Swiss Re and JP Morgan.Best on Campus: Armatrix slithers to success with snake-like robotic armsArmatrix took home the Best on Campus prize at ETSA 2026. The startup is building snake-like robotic arms that can navigate confined industrial spaces.Juror Abhiraj Singh Bhal, CEO of Urban Company, said the startup’s young and dynamic founders building in a space like robotics impressed the panel.Armatrix was founded at IIT Kanpur in 2024 by Vishrant Dave, Prateesh Awasthi and Ayush Ranjan, who began working on flexible robotic arms in their third year of engineering. The startup aims to reduce the need for workers to enter confined and hazardous spaces for inspection and maintenance.ET Startup Awards methodology: how we arrived at the winnersIn its 12th year, The Economic Times Startup Awards (ETSA) captured the ever-changing world of technology and digital India as the sector has evolved from infancy of innovation to spawning multiple publicly listed new-age corporations.What goes into selecting the nominees and the winners of the ET Startup Awards? Here is a timeline of the effort.