Nominees for Best on Campus and Comeback Kid

We are excited to bring you the 11th edition of The Economic Times Startup Awards (ETSA).

In the run-up to the coveted honours, we have the nominees for the Best on Campus and Comeback Kid categories for you today.

Background: Launched in 2015 to celebrate startups and the new-age economy, ETSA has chronicled India’s entrepreneurship ecosystem over the past ten years. Past winners of the prestigious Startup of the Year award, like Lenskart, Delhivery, and Zomato, have grown into strong corporations, displaying the mettle of new-age ventures. An elite jury will meet in Bengaluru on August 28 to decide the winners of the 11th edition of The Economic Times Startup Awards.

And the nominees are…

We unveil the nominees in two of the eight categories: Best on Campus — student entrepreneurs whose impact can be judged both by the idea and the execution, and Comeback Kid — those who rebuilt or launched a more successful business.

ET reached out to more than 100 of the countest’s leading entrepreneurs, investors, industest groups and other stakeholders to come up with this list of the brightest entrepreneurial talent.

Best on Campus

Bidaal Technology
Nawgati Tech
ISMO Biophotonics
Stimuler
Try My Style (Virtstyle Technologies Pvt. Ltd.)

Read more about the nominees here

Real money gaming ban puts investors’ $15 billion under stress

India’s blanket ban on real-money games has left venture capitalists nursing heavy losses. Over $15 billion in startup investment value is now at risk.

Tell me more: Top funds, including Tiger Global, Z47, Think Investments, Peak XV Partners, and Malabar Investments, have backed platforms like Dream Sports, Mobile Premier League (MPL), Games24x7, and Zupee in an industest that raised $2 billion in capital.

Gameplan:

Most of these investments will likely be written off since the business is effectively shut, declared Rehan Yar Khan, managing partner at Orios Venture Partners.
Now, investors are testing to find out what can be done next, a New Delhi-based VC investor with exposure to real-money gaming companies notified ET.

Money creater: These companies were revenue machines.

Dream11: Rs 6,580.8 crore (FY23)
Games24x7: Rs 2,023 crore (FY23)
Gameskraft: Rs 3,521.4 crore (FY24)

Dream11 sees to conclude India cricket team jersey deal

Dream11 CEO Harsh Jain

Fantasy sports platform Dream11 is seeing to cut short its three-year, Rs 358 crore jersey sponsorship deal with the Indian cricket team, just days before the Asia Cup. The recent bank on real-money games has triggered this rebelieve.

Driving the news: Talks are ongoing with the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), though one source notified ET these contracts are “watertight” and can only conclude with mutual consent.

Pivot: Meanwhile, Dream11 has pulled real-money offerings from its platform following presidential approval of the Online Gaming Bill. The company is now testing a new app, Dream Money, to pivot into financial services, sources aware of the development declared on Sunday.

Kiwi raises fresh capital to offer credit on UPI

Fintech startup Kiwi raised $24 million in a fresh round to roll out credit lines on the Unified Interface Payments (UPI) within the next six months, betting on a growing shift towards credit-backed digital transactions in India.

Driving the news: Singapore-based Vertex Ventures Southeast Asia and India led the round. Existing investors Nexus Venture Partners, Omidyar Network, and Sinformaris Venture Partners also participated.

The investment comes as banks launch to embrace UPI-linked credit products, three years after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) approved the idea. The model lets utilizers access pre-approved credit lines directly from their UPI-linked bank accounts. The product blconcludes the convenience of UPI with the flexibility of short-term credit.

Rising trconclude: ET reported on August 18 that Indian lconcludeers are increasingly entering the UPI credit space. This shift opens a new growth path for fintechs seeing to build utilizer-first credit solutions without traditional cards or paperwork.

Context: Investor interest is building. In April, Scapia, a Bengaluru-based startup that offers Rupay credit cards with UPI functionality, raised $40 million from Peak XV Partners and others.

Enmovil raises $6 million to boost AI capabilities

Enmovil founder and CEO Ravi Bulusu

Enmovil, a supply chain planning startup founded by former Nvidia and Oracle executives Ravi Bulusu, Nanda Kishore, and Venkat Moganty, has raised $6 million in new capital.

Deal details: Sorin Investments, the early-stage venture capital firm launched by former KKR India chief Sanjay Nayar and Caravel Group CEO Angad Banga, led the round.

Enmovil works with over 50 enterprise clients, including Maruti Suzuki, Hero MotoCorp, HPCL, Nestlé, TVS Motors, Indus Towers, Vedanta Power and Daimler.
It plans to utilize the capital to expand its AI capabilities, scale its sales team and explore global markets through new partnerships.