Winners of the ET Startup Awards 2026; Groww vs Zerodha

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Daily Top 5Winners of the ET Startup Awards 2026; Groww vs Zerodha

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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.

ET Startup Awards 2026: Groww is Startup Of The Year; Sauce VC’s Manu Chandra wins Midas Touch

A high-powered jury, helmed by Wipro executive chairman Rishad Premji, named wealthtech platform Groww the Startup of the Year, at the 12th edition of The Economic Times Startup Awards (ETSA).

The 11-member panel deliberated for three hours to pick the winners in the eight categories of ETSA 2026.

Groww’s execution in a competitive, tightly regulated business, profitability, and successful public listing left a lasting impression on the jury.

Winner’s club: Founded by Lalit Keshre, Harsh Jain, Ishan Bansal, and Neeraj Singh in 2016, publicly-listed Groww joins an elite club of winners of the top prize that includes Urban Company, Lenskart, Zomato (now Eternal), Delhivery, Razorpay, OfBusiness, and Swiggy.

Midas Touch: Manu Chandra, founder and managing partner at consumer investment firm Sauce VCBootstrap Champ: HabuildTop Innovator: TheranautilusWoman Ahead: Pallavi Mohadikar, cofounder and chief executive, Palmonas; Pallavi Shrivastava, cofounder and CEO, ProgcapSocial Enterprise: VarahaComeback Kid: Mukund JhaBest On Campus: Armatrix

Jury’s views: The group of corporate bigwigs and consumer internet and global tech leaders had a stimulating session as they decided on the winner from the best of India’s entrepreneurial talent.

Impressed by the startups they were evaluating, the jury noted that at least two of them will make it to the Nifty 50 in the not-so-distant future. Members of the jury were particularly impressed by the unconventional ventures aiming to solve global problems across categories, generating much optimism about India’s future.

As startups go public, ETSA jury asks: When does a startup cease to be one?

Do you consider a public market company a startup, or do those not qualify? That was the big debate during the jury meet.

What happened: Some jury members viewed public listing as a transition beyond the startup stage. Others argued that listed companies can still be startups if they continue to grow rapidly, build new capabilities, and shape emerging markets.

The finalists for ET Startup of the Year were Groww, Meesho, and Skyroot. Groww ultimately won because of its combination of scale, profitability, and accelerating growth.

Groww versus Zerodha: One wins the customer race, the other the earnings battle

Fintech firm Groww expanded faster in FY26 and had a much bigger active-client base, but Zerodha was almost twice as large both in revenues and profits.