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The ET Startup Awards 2026 honored ventures across eight categories, with Groww named Startup of the Year. The claim that Tier-II and Tier-III cities could reshape India’s startup map comes from a separate moment: at the 2025 awards, IDFC FIRST Bank CEO and managing director V Vaidyanathan called for a wider pool of startup capital and pointed to campuses and smaller cities as sources of disruption. The available 2026 coverage does not show him repeating those remarks at the 2026 event.
What Vaidyanathan said about startup geography
At the 2025 ET Startup Awards, Vaidyanathan argued that India needs a broader pool of startup capital and said there was “huge potential for more disruption, especially from campuses and tier-2 and -3 cities.” The Economic Times reported his remarks on November 3, 2025.
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He also recounted what a venture capitalist had told him: roughly 40–50 of about 1,000 startup pitches received financing. That is an anecdote relayed by Vaidyanathan, not a measured national funding rate or an independently verified statistic. It illustrates his argument for a wider capital pool, but does not quantify the funding odds for Indian founders as a whole.
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Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesFind Drivers →Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsFree Scan →The distinction in dates matters. ET’s 2026 awards coverage identifies IDFC FIRST Bank as presenting sponsor, but does not attribute the Tier-II/III remarks to the 2026 ceremony. The available evidence therefore supports describing Vaidyanathan’s comments as a 2025 statement, not a 2026 awards announcement.
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Who won the ET Startup Awards 2026?
ET reported these winners across the awards’ eight categories:
| Category | 2026 winner |
|---|---|
| Startup of the Year | Groww |
| Midas Touch – Best Investor | Manu Chandra |
| Bootstrap Champ | Habuild |
| Social Enterprise | Varaha |
| Woman Ahead | Pallavi Mohadikar and Pallavi Shrivastava, joint winners |
| Top Innovator | Theranautilus |
| Best on Campus | Armatrix |
| Comeback Kid | Mukund Jha / Emergent |
The Economic Times’ winner report is the basis for the results above. The official awards site lists the categories and describes Startup of the Year in terms of the potential to become a blue-chip corporation, innovation, execution, growth and management quality.
What the awards say—and do not say—about startup geography
The award categories recognize different kinds and stages of entrepreneurship: campus ventures, women-led businesses, bootstrapped growth, social enterprises, innovation, comeback stories and investors, alongside the overall Startup of the Year. That breadth makes the awards relevant to a discussion about where entrepreneurship can emerge.
It does not, by itself, show that the 2026 awards favored Tier-II cities or that company formation is shifting away from metros. The reported winners and category definitions do not provide a city-by-city comparison. Vaidyanathan’s remarks offer a case for widening the geography and sources of disruption, rather than proof that smaller-city ecosystems have overtaken established metro hubs.
How to understand the metro and Tier-II/III comparison
Vaidyanathan’s remarks point to two possible sources of founders: campuses and cities beyond the largest startup centers. Assessing what either can contribute requires looking at several distinct ecosystem needs; the 2025 comments do not rank particular cities or measure these factors.
- Capital: His central point was that the startup capital pool should be wider. The anecdote about pitches receiving funding is not evidence of a specific geographic funding gap.
- Founder talent and campus pipelines: His reference to campuses identifies them as a potential source of disruption. The Best on Campus award category also recognizes campus-origin entrepreneurship, but neither point establishes where the strongest pipeline is located.
- Customer access: A venture needs customers, but the available awards coverage does not compare customer access in metros and smaller cities.
- Operating infrastructure: Workspace and other business services matter to companies, but the sources do not establish that infrastructure in Tier-II/III cities is sufficient to close any capital or market-access gaps.
These are useful questions for founders and investors to evaluate city ecosystems; they are not findings that the awards have measured. The cited material supports the argument for looking beyond familiar hubs, not a claim that one tier of city is categorically better for startups.
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What the 2026 event establishes
The official awards site lists eight categories: Startup of the Year, Top Innovator, Best on Campus, Woman Ahead, Bootstrap Champ, Comeback Kid, Social Enterprise and Midas Touch – Best Investor. Together they recognize company performance, innovation, campus entrepreneurship, women founders, bootstrapped businesses, social impact, recoveries and investment.
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1Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errors2Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minute3Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsThe categories and the 2026 winners show the range of entrepreneurship the event recognizes. The evidence does not connect those results to a specific geographic shift, and the 2025 quote should not be used as if it were a statement made at the 2026 ceremony.
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