Bengaluru: Bengaluru accounts for $894 million, or 70 percent, of the $1.3 billion raised by auto-tech companies in the country in the Year To Date (YTD), with companies like ride-hailing platform Rapido attracting large venture capital (VC) funding. According to data intelligence firm Traxcn, Mumbai and Gurugram occupied the second and third spots at $107 million and $63 million respectively.
“India Auto Tech companies raised $1.3 bn across 97 rounds in 2026 year to date (2026 YTD), against $2.1B across 195 rounds in 2025,” said a report by Traxcn, released Monday.
Bengaluru’s top position was heavily influenced by several large funding rounds, led by Rapido’s $240 million Series F round in May, accounting for about 18 percent of the total funding, bringing its total to $798 million.
The report includes only companies that provide software to the auto industry, Electric Vehicle (EV) solutions and firms that buy and sell automobiles online among others.
The promising numbers, however, do not necessarily mean India has withstood the global funding winter as the 2026 YTD investments are only some signs of stopping the downward spiral, data shows. With just over a quarter to go in this calendar year, there is hope that the numbers might hold up in comparison to corresponding years.
There has been a steady decline in investments into auto-tech companies from $3.1 billion (2021), $2.6 billion (2022), $2 v(2023) and a sharp decline in 2024 to $1.6 billion. There was, however, an upward trend in 2025 when companies in this sector raised $2.1 billion with 195 rounds of funding.
In 2026, there have been just 97 rounds of funding, indicating that money continues to pour into late-stage rounds rather than early-stage companies.
In 2026 (YTD), just $62.8 million went towards seed stage startups as against $126 million in 2025. Similarly, in 2026 early-stage startups accounted for $330 million as against $463 million last year.
Late-stage startups accounted for the lion’s share of Venture Capital (VC) funding inflows into the country, with $868 million this year as against $1.5 billion last year. Late-stage startups also saw lower number of funding rounds with 12 in 2026 (YTD) as against 20 rounds in 2025.
In 2025, auto-tech companies raised $2.1 billion, an increase from $1.6 billion in 2024. There has been a steady decline, however.
“Series C and later rounds made up eight of the 10 largest rounds in 2026 YTD, totalling $810 million. That is about 60 per cent of the funding total,” according to Traxcn.
Six of the eight companies are based in Bengaluru, reinforcing the city’s dominance in the startup and tech space. In total, Bengaluru has 1,234 companies in this space, including Ola Cabs, Ola Electric and Rapido among others with 955 of them funded.
Delhi has 825 companies with 725 funded ones while Mumbai has 490 funded companies, taking its total to 590. The other cities in the top eight are Hyderabad (523), Pune (517), Chennai (429), Gurugram (415) and Noida (292).
(Edited by Nardeep Singh Dahiya)
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