Bengaluru slips 1 spot to 15th in GSER 2026 ranking
Bengaluru just landed at 15th place in the Global Startup Ecosystem Report (GSER) 2026, dropping one spot from last year.
The report, unveiled at VivaTech in Paris, also puts Bengaluru at sixth in Asia and names it the second-best AI-native cluster after Beijing.
Even with the slight drop, the city's global influence is still strong.
Bengaluru startups $153 billion, talent gap
Bengaluru's startup scene is valued at $153 billion and boasts 30 unicorns, way above the world average of 11 per city.
Between 2021 and 2025, it pulled in $39 billion in VC funding and saw $46 billion in exits.
But there's a catch: talent and experience are lagging behind, with low salaries for engineers ($19,600 vs. $54,000 globally).
To fix this, Karnataka government Startup Policy 2.0 and KATALYST are highlighted.