US District Judge Richard Seeborg in San Francisco granted the fee request by law firms Boies Schiller Flexner, Susman Godfrey and Morgan & Morgan over objections from some class members. A jury in September found Google liable for secretly collecting app activity data from millions of users who had disabled a tracking feature.
Groww won the top prize at the 12th edition of the Economic Times Startup Awards. The list of other winners, and more, in today’s ETtech Top 5.
Happy Thursday! Top entrepreneurs and business leaders came together in Bengaluru on August 25 to pick the winners of The Economic Times Startup Awards (ETSA) 2026.
Emergent cofounder Mukund Jha has won the Comeback Kid award at the ET Startup Awards 2026, marking a return after the collapse of Dunzo. The jury recognised his second act with AI startup Emergent, which recently raised $230 million at a $1.5 billion valuation and built more than 12 million applications through its AI-powered platform.
Founded in 2020 by Saurabh and Trishala Bothra and Anshul Agrawal, the platform aimed to make yoga more accessible and has become one of India's largest digital wellness platforms, growing without external funding.
Deeptech startup Theranautilus has won the Top Innovator award at the ET Startup Awards 2026 for its work on microscopic robots that can navigate the human body for targeted treatments. Founded in 2020, the Bengaluru-based startup is developing the technology for dental care, with human trials planned for September 2026.
Sauce VC founder and managing partner Manu Chandra has won the Midas Touch award for Best Investor at the ET Startup Awards 2026. The jury recognised his early bets on consumer startups and strong exit track record, including Sauce’s estimated Rs 500-550 crore exit from portfolio company Innovist to L’Oréal.
Armatrix has won the Best on Campus award at the ET Startup Awards 2026 for its snake-like robotic arms designed to work in narrow, hazardous industrial spaces. Founded on the IIT-Kanpur campus in 2024, the startup is running paid pilots in shipbuilding and plans to expand into aviation, oil and gas and nuclear industries.
Palmonas cofounder Pallavi Mohadikar and Progcap cofounder Pallavi Shrivastava jointly won the Woman Ahead award at the ET Startup Awards 2026. The jury recognised their distinct journeys in building high-impact businesses in jewellery and supply-chain finance, as both founders tackle underserved markets in the country.
The elite jury was chaired by Wipro executive chairman Rishad Premji. The 11-member panel deliberated for nearly three hours on Tuesday to pick winners in eight categories.
Do you consider a public market company a startup, or do those not qualify? That was the big debate when the jury met to decide the next cohort of winners for The Economic Times Startup Awards 2026.
Varaha is helping farmers adopt sustainable farming practices such as regenerative farming, tree planting, biochar and enhanced rock weathering that improve organic carbon and moisture retention in soil and boost biodiversity, while reducing farmers’ dependence on synthetic inputs.
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.
