Union minister Piyush Goyal to headline ET Startup Awards on October 9 in Bengaluru

Commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal will be guest of honour at the 12th edition of The Economic Times Startup Awards to be held in Bengaluru on October 9. More than 350 of the most influential leaders from the startup and technology ecosystem will gather in the city for the grand ceremony, where winners in eight categories will receive India’s most coveted awards for entrepreneurship.

Goyal has been leading trade negotiations with key partners, including the US, after sealing high-profile deals with the UK, which came into force in July, and the European Union (EU), which is expected to take effect early next year.

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His ministry is also overhauling a raft of laws and regulations to make it easier to do business and to cement India’s position as a global manufacturing hub, a push that has coincided with record foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows of $94.53 billion in FY26.

Since it was launched in 2015, the ET Startup Awards has become a benchmark for entrepreneurial achievement in India. The 2026 edition arrives at a defining moment for the country’s new economy, which is grappling with a rapid wave of advances in artificial intelligence (AI) and a shifting geopolitical landscape, as startups enter a new phase shaped by growth, capital discipline and technological disruption.

Bengaluru-based wealthtech platform Groww won the coveted Startup of the Year prize, joining a preeminent list of past winners, including Urban Company, Lenskart, Zomato, OfBusiness, Razorpay, Delhivery and Swiggy.

Manu Chandra, founder and managing partner at Sauce VC, won the Midas Touch for being a distinguished early-stage consumer-focused investor. Online yoga platform Habuild bagged Bootstrap Champ, while climatetech startup Varaha clinched the Social Enterprise award.

The Woman Ahead category saw joint winners for the first time, with the jury picking Pallavi Mohadikar, cofounder and chief executive of Palmonas, and Progcap cofounder and CEO Pallavi Shrivastava. Deeptech startup Theranautilus was adjudged the winner in the Top Innovator category. The Best on Campus award was won by Armatrix.

Vibe coding startup Emergent cofounder Mukund Jha took the Comeback Kid prize.

An 11-member elite jury, chaired by Rishad Premji, executive chairman of Wipro, deliberated for nearly three hours on August 25 to pick the winners in these categories.

Premji was joined on the jury by Sachin Bansal, cofounder, Flipkart and Navi; Vijay Shekhar Sharma, founder and CEO, Paytm; Mukesh Bansal, cofounder, Myntra and Curefit; Mithun Sacheti, cofounder, CaratLane; Nandita Sinha, CEO, Swiggy Instamart; Ajit Mohan, chief business officer, Snap Inc; Irina Ghose, MD, Anthropic India; Paras Chopra, founder, Wingify and Lossfunk; Abhiraj Singh Bhal, cofounder and CEO, Urban Company; and Aryaman Vikram Birla, director, Aditya Birla Group.

The Economic Times Startup Awards 2026 is presented by IDFC First Bank.