Joining Nilekani — at this milestone event — will be Mithun Sacheti, founder, CaratLane; Nyrika Holkar, executive director, Godrej & Boyce; Ritesh Arora, cofounder and CEO, Browserstack; Albinder Dhindsa, CEO, Blinkit; Sumer Juneja, managing partner & head, India & EMEA, SoftBank; Nikhil Kamath, cofounder, Zerodha; Nandita Sinha, CEO, Myntra; Prativa Mohapatra, MD, Adobe India; and cricketer Shubman Gill.
“The tenth edition of the ET Startup Awards comes at a defining moment in this young industry which has faced a few challenging years amid a funding drought and corporate governance lapses. Those that have grown and prospered have done so by focusing on profitability, being frugal, adhering to high integrity standards and running the marathon,” said Nilekani who is also the founding chairman of the Unique Identification Authority of India, which houses Aadhaar, the biometric identity number that has proven to be the bedrock for a swathe of fintech startups.
Pointing to the growing number of new economy ventures that have either successfully accessed public markets or will do so soon, Nilekani said he was “looking forward to seeing some outstanding young companies”, at this year’s edition of ETSA.
Launched in 2015 to celebrate the fledgling startup economy, ETSA has over the past nine years chronicled the ebb and flow of the Indian entrepreneurship ecosystem.
Past winners of the coveted Startup of the Year like Freshworks, Delhivery and Zomato have grown into strong publicly listed corporations, displaying the mettle of new economy ventures. Others like Swiggy are poised to also take the IPO route.
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Showcasing ContendersBeginning today, ET will unveil the contenders who have made it to the shortlist, starting with the Bootstrap Champ—entrepreneurs who have built a startup without outside funding; and Top Innovator—startups with an original idea that separates them from competition.
We will also recognise students who have founded companies while they were on campus, women entrepreneurs, social enterprises that combine profits and public good, and investors with a Midas touch.
The biggest prize will be for the Startup of the Year, a company that is on its way to becoming a blue-chip corporation.
ET reached out to more than two hundred of the country’s top entrepreneurs, investors, industry groups and other stakeholders to compile a list of India’s brightest entrepreneurial talent. The paper’s editorial team then distilled this to arrive at the final shortlist. Tracxn is the knowledge partner for ETSA.