40 Under 40: Breaking Barriers

Over the last decade, India has witnessed a remarkable surge in entrepreneurship, evolving into a dynamic startup ecosystem fuelled by innovation across sectors. Despite experiencing a funding winter and a shift in investment sentiment over the past two years, many startups have demonstrated extraordinary resilience, emerging stronger and more focused on sustainable growth. The rise of unicorns and the ongoing IPO wave signal a renewed confidence in the ecosystem. Bharat is also experiencing significant disruption, with grassroots innovations gaining traction. 

With continued investor interest, industry leaders are optimistic that India is on a promising growth trajectory.

Supported by favourable government policies and a surge of venture capital, startups across diverse sectors are thriving in India. This dynamic interplay is solidifying India’s role as a key player in the global startup ecosystem. Importantly, today’s entrepreneurs are increasingly focused on sustainable growth and profitability, emphasising strong unit economics over inflated valuations and oversized funding rounds. 

The Initiative
To honour the remarkable contributions of trailblazing entrepreneurs, BW Disrupt, in association with BW Businessworld, hosted the eighth edition of the BW Disrupt 40 Under 40 Awards. This prestigious event, every year, recognises pioneers across various fields, celebrating their achievements and encouraging a continued spirit of innovation. 
In this edition, the spotlight expanded to include not only disruptive entrepreneurs but also intrapreneurs—those visionary individuals who drive growth within established organisations. While entrepreneurs embark on new ventures, intrapreneurs revolutionise existing ones, fostering innovation from within. 

The Process
In this process, BW Disrupt received over 500 entries from across sectors such as FMCG, D2C, fintech, AI and more. Subsequently, after a thorough second level of evaluation, the number was whittled down to 140 nominees, who were further shortlisted and invited to present before the esteemed jury panel.

The nominees underwent a meticulous multi-tier screening, scrutiny and shortlisting procedure to identify the most deserving winners. The jury process adhered to a specific set of parameters for evaluating the entries, including major accomplishments, key contributions in the organisation, strategies for brand growth, leadership journey, sustainability, weakness and strength and the rationale behind each nominee's potential win. 

The Jury
The distinguished jury panel comprised esteemed and notable members including, Dr Annurag Batra, Chairman and Editor-in-chief-BW Businessworld and Founder, exchange4media; Bala Deshpande, Managing Director, MegaDelta Capital; Padmaja Ruparel, Co-Founder, Indian Angel Network and Founding Partner, IAN Fund; Ankit Agrawal, Executive Director, Private Markets, Lighthouse Canton; Vikram Gupta, Founder and Managing Partner, IvyCap Ventures; Anurag Ramdasan, Partner, 3one4 Capital; Anup Jain, Leading Early Stage VC; Rohit Bhayana, Co-Founder and Managing Partner, Lumis Partners; Nikhil Bhandarkar, Founding Partner, Panthera Peak Capital, and  Senior advisor MS Dhoni Family office ( Startup’s/VC); TCM Sundaram, Founder and Vice Chairman, Chiratae Ventures; Afzal Mohammed Modak, Founder and CEO, GSF Management (a Venture Studio).