ET Startup Awards 2026: 3 Public Exits & 1 IPO Filing in Midas Race

For investors tracking Indian exit liquidity, the ET Startup Awards Midas Touch category reads like an IPO scorecard. Shailesh Lakhani of Ambition Capital has three portfolio companies already public and a fourth that has filed IPO papers; Anu Hariharan's portfolio includes publicly listed Groww and Meesho. This shortlist offers a rare direct comparison of exit volume and timing across India's top early-stage investors.

The 12th edition of The Economic Times Startup Awards has shortlisted four companies for Startup of the Year and four investors for Midas Touch, offering a high-resolution snapshot of India's startup economy in 2026. According to ETtech, the Startup of the Year category will be judged on breakthrough innovation, top-class execution, fast-paced growth, and the quality of the founding and management team. The Midas Touch category rewards the most lucrative exit of the year, measured by both the volume of deals and the size of the exit.

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Shailesh Lakhani, partner at Ambition Capital and a former 18-year veteran of Peak XV Partners (formerly Sequoia Capital India), has built a portfolio including Zetwerk, Truecaller, Porter, Healthkart, and Ixigo.

In the Startup of the Year category, Porter is a Bengaluru-based on-demand logistics provider founded in 2014 by Uttam Digga and Pranav Goel. The company serves small and medium enterprises for shorter distances, connecting individual customers and small businesses to fleet operators, and counts Kedaara Capital, Wellington Management, and Tiger Global among key investors. Skyroot Aerospace, founded in 2018 in Hyderabad by Pawan Kumar Chandana and Naga Bharath Daka, is India's first spacetech unicorn. Its Vikram-1 rocket became India's first privately developed rocket to successfully reach low Earth orbit in July 2026, and the company is now developing the larger Vikram-2 for heavier satellites as well as a reusable rocket. Institutional backers include GIC, Temasek, BlackRock, and Arkam Ventures.

Rapido, founded in 2015 by Aravind Sanka, Pavan Guntupalli, and Rishikesh SR, describes itself as India's largest ride-hailing platform, offering two-, three-, and four-wheeler taxis across 400 cities. It recently launched the food delivery app Ownly in Bengaluru, aimed at value-conscious customers, with plans to expand. Meesho, founded in 2015 by Vidit Aatrey and Sanjeev Barnwal, rounds out the Startup of the Year field. The company, a major e-commerce platform, earned its place through large-scale penetration of India's value-conscious consumer segment. The source material truncated Meesho's key investor list, but its nomination confirms its standing among India's most significant startups.

The Midas Touch shortlist shifts attention from operating companies to the investors who have engineered exits. Shailesh Lakhani, partner at Ambition Capital and a former 18-year veteran of Peak XV Partners (formerly Sequoia Capital India), has built a portfolio including Zetwerk, Truecaller, Porter, Healthkart, and Ixigo. According to ETtech, three of his portfolio companies have already gone public and a fourth has filed its IPO papers. Manu Chandra, managing partner at Sauce VC, has developed an investment strategy around small initial cheques and follow-on backing for companies showing traction, with a sharp focus on the consumer sector. His key investments include Innovist, The Whole Truth, Mokobara, XYXX, and Supertails.

Anu Hariharan, managing partner at Avra Capital, previously led Y Combinator's Continuity Fund and has focused on backing high-growth technology companies. Her portfolio includes Groww, Meesho, Razorpay, and Zepto, with Groww and Meesho having gone public. Mukesh Bansal, the founder of fashion etailer Myntra and fitness startup Curefit, now invests with an operator's lens through the venture studio Meraki Labs. His portfolio includes Groww, Skyroot Aerospace, Cred, FirstClub, and Temple, with sizeable gains recorded across fintech and consumer segments.