The Economic Times Startup Awards 2026 will honour winners in Bengaluru today. Union minister Piyush Goyal will present the awards to celebrate entrepreneurial excellence. Top investors and founders will gather to discuss the future of the business ecosystem. The event marks the twelfth edition of these prestigious industry awards.
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Happy Friday! The who's who of the startup ecosystem will come together in Bengaluru today to honour the winners of The Economic Times Startup Awards (ETSA) 2026.
Also in the letter:
■ AWS ventures chief on AI
■ Layoffs at Amazon India
■ DailyObjects raises funds
It's D-day! Top entrepreneurs, policymakers, and investors will come together in Bengaluru today to honour the stars of Indian entrepreneurship at the twelfth edition of ETSA 2026.
What's happening: Union commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal will be the guest of honour at ETSA 2026, presenting the country's most coveted awards for entrepreneurial excellence to the winners.
Goyal is expected to speak about the government's efforts to deepen and expand the country's emerging business ecosystem.
Speakers: As once-fledgling startups increasingly make the transition to publicly listed companies, Groww cofounder and CEO Lalit Keshre and Meesho cofounder and CEO Vidit Aatrey will reflect on their journeys from young upstarts to the leaders of multi-billion-dollar enterprises.
Also, Accel founding partner Prashanth Prakash will discuss India's hard-tech ambitions with Kshitij Khandelwal, cofounder and CTO of spacetech startup Pixxel; Laina Emmanuel, cofounder and CEO of BrainSight AI; and Dheemanth Nagaraj, cofounder and CEO of AI semiconductor startup Agrani Labs.
Meet the winners: The high-powered jury led by Wipro chairman Rishad Premji tasked with choosing the winners of ETSA 2026 met in Bengaluru in August to pick the winners across eight categories. They are:
IT services major Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) on Thursdayreported a 15% on-year growth in consolidated net profit in the second quarter of FY27.
Financials:
AI revenue: TCS said annualised AI revenue reached $3.1 billion in Q2 and crossed 10% of earnings. Aarthi Subramanian, executive director, president and chief operating officer, said AI momentum remained strong, with demand for AI-native solutions, AI-led enterprise transformation, autonomous global business services, and cybersecurity.
Deal details:
Jason Bennett, vice president and global head of startups and venture capital at Amazon Web Services
Artificial intelligence (AI) is lowering barriers to building companies and is likely to fuel another wave of startup creation over the next two years, as founders build products faster and operate with smaller teams, according to Jason Bennett, global head of startups and venture capital at Amazon Web Services (AWS).
Faster growth, earlier traction: "We have more startups being created today than there were two years ago. And I suspect if you look out two years from now, you'll see a further increase," Bennett told us.
AI-native startups are showing faster revenue growth and gaining market traction earlier than traditional startups.
Data decoded: An AWS study with Strand Partners found AI-native startups growing revenues 167% year-on-year and are 5.5 times more likely to reach $1 million in earnings than non-AI-native peers. "Some companies are getting to hundreds of millions in Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) very quickly," Bennett said.
Extending support: AWS is increasingly supporting startups beyond cloud infrastructure, helping with go-to-market and enterprise customer acquisition through AWS Marketplace. "It's not enough for us just to provide credits or to have a platform of services... We also have to help them drive engagement and win customers," Bennett said.
Amazon's latest global layoffs of around 1,000 employees have impacted at least 100 jobs in India, primarily across its retail and customer service functions, people aware of the development told us.
Amazon says: Responding to ET's queries, an Amazon spokesperson said, "We've adjusted parts of our Stores business because we believe this structure will better enable us to deliver on our priorities. As part of these changes, we've made the difficult decision to eliminate a small number of roles, and we're committed to supporting affected employees through their transition."
DailyObjects raises funds: Lifestyle accessories brand DailyObjects has raised Rs 332 crore funding led by Xponentia Capital Partners, Anicut Capital, and Axiom Asia Private Capital. The round will value the company at Rs 1,050 crore post-money.
Groww attracts bulk of new broking clients: Online brokerage Groww continued to strengthen its position in India's stockbroking market in September, adding 1,00,961 active clients even as the industry's overall client base grew just 0.35% month-on-month, according to data from the National Stock Exchange (NSE).
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