Economic Times Startup Awards: ET Startup Awards 2023: Nine long years of chronicling the Indian startup ecosystem

In 2014, Indian startups got their first big push with global investors starting to chase companies like Flipkart, Ola and Oyo, as the world sensed a massive opportunity in the country’s market. This was on the back of a much-ballyhooed IPO of ecommerce behemoth Alibaba and investors in China wanting to get a beachhead in the next big market. Investors lined up, betting on tech startups, especially in the consumer internet sector, seeking to tap the young demographic of a country of over 1.2 billion people at the time.

It was not only the financial investors but large strategic players like Amazon declared India as a big market, deploying billions of dollars, as the rush of capital began. This was when this newspaper instituted what’s become the most celebrated set of awards for the startup ecosystem — the Economic Times Startup Awards— with the idea to propel entrepreneurship in the country.

In its ninth year, ETSA, as it is commonly known, has successfully created a startup community which comes together every year to recognise diverse entrepreneurs across categories.

But from 2015 to 2023, startups have undergone a sea change. Eight years ago, in 2015, Indian startups received $8.3 billion in funding, while in 2022, they raised almost three times as much at $24.4 billion, according to data sourced from Venture Intelligence. This was after a record year of fundraising in 2021, when Indian startups raised nearly $36 billion.

In the first eight months of 2023, investors cut cheques totalling $4.9 billion for Indian startups.

From recognising student entrepreneurs to awarding women who are leading from the front to companies which are building businesses with social impact at the centre of their ventures, ETSA’s motto has been to showcase diversity. With that thought, we have put the limelight on not only the venturefunded startups but the ones built with no institutional funding, as we pick the Bootstrap Champ and deep-tech focussed startups under the Top Innovatory category.

Back in 2016, ETSA awarded Zerodha, a relatively small online brokerage firm built out of Bengaluru, as a Bootstrap Champ who six years later went on to bag the prestigious Startup of the Year prize. Subrata Mitra, partner at venture capital firm Accel, who won the Midas Touch award for best investor in 2018 for his Flipkart investment following the Walmart acquisition, told ET that most of ETSA winners have become large companies displaying how the awards jury has been able to spot the winners early on.

“In the end, the quality of entrepreneurs is what matters. The ecosystem has evolved over the past decade and now look at all the firms that are doing well — many of these founders are really high quality. Entrepreneurial quality and pace of innovation have significantly improved when you look at our companies like Swiggy, Freshworks and many others,” Mitra said.

Swiggy was declared the Startup of the Year in 2018 while Freshworks, which is publicly listed in the US, won in 2016. Even as startups have become mainstream, many challenges have sprung up in terms of the need for tighter corporate governance, push towards profitable growth and overall value creation generated after billions in venture capital pumped in the market.

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