ET Startup Awards 2025: Here’s what the winners said

The 11th edition of Economic Times Startup Awards 2025 celebrated India’s thriving startup ecosystem. Urban Company, which went public in September, won Startup of the Year, while the guest of honour, Piyush Goyal, lauded the ecosystem’s global impact and India’s IPO boom.

Here are the winners:

^{Startup of the Year: Urban Company}

ETtech

CEO Abhiraj Singh Bhal: We are truly humbled and honoured to win the ET Startup of the Year Award. It takes an entire team to build a company, it takes an entire village to grow a company, like a child. So this award belongs as much to the entire team as it belongs to me

^{Bootstrap Champ: Minfy Technologies}

ETtech

Cofounder Vinay Jain: This is an amazing recognition for us, especially when we reflect on the past winners. Being bootstrapped was a partly conscious decision because it gave us a lot of independence in building the fundamentals of how we wanted to grow.

^{Top Innovator: Qure.ai}

ETtech

Founder and CEO Prashant Warier: For us, this award is a meaningful recognition. We were among the first to build out deep AI capabilities from India, and to see that effort acknowledged by the country’s leading business newspaper means a lot.

^{Comeback Kid: Capillary Technologies}

ETtech

Aneesh Reddy: This is phenomenal recognition for the entire Capillary team that has persevered through thick and thin. We’re honoured and humbled, and we hope this serves as an inspiration for any company going through a rough patch.

^{Best on Campus: Nawgati}

ETtech

Cofounder Vaibhav Kaushik: While winning this award has been a great recognition of our work, the best part of attending the ETSA event has been the networking. We’re looking forward to staying in touch with some of the headhunters and investors as we look to scale up.

^{Woman Ahead: Prukalpa Sankar}

ETtech

Vyajanthi Sankar: I’m also a woman entrepreneur so I understand the difficult journey of entrepreneurs and I congratulate ET for creating this category. Whenever any woman accomplishes something, it makes it possible for a million others to follow their dreams.

(Received the award on behalf of her daughter Prukalpa Sankar, CEO, Atlan)

^{Social Enterprise: Chakr Innovation}

ETtech

Kushagra Srivastava: This recognition is a reflection of the deeptech journey India is embarking on, and convergence of science, innovation and purpose to create global impact. Our mission is to build technologies from India for the world.

(Srivastava’s wife Mrinalini Kapoor received the award on his behalf)

^{Midas Touch: Ashish Agrawal}

ETtech