Best Auto Companies in Tennessee, United States
The 131 best Auto companies in Tennessee, United States in 2026, ranked by funding and momentum. Funding, investors, founders, valuation, tech stack and live signals. Top: Bridgestone Americas.
Our analysis of 50 Auto companies
$9.4b in tracked funding; 94% of the stack-profiled cohort runs cloud-native; funding activity peaked in 2025.
Ranked: Best Auto companies in Tennessee
| # | Company | Disclosed funding | Last round | Stage | Founder | Founded | Tech stack | Patents & IP focus | Recent signals |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bridgestone Americas Manufacturer and supplier of tyres | $1.1B | 64 mo ago | Funding Raised | Gordon Knapp Ex-CEO & President | 1990 | Adobe Experience ManagerJavaSalesforce+25 | 3,078 patents Advanced tire materials, RFID tracking, wear monitoring, and retreading technologies | 2 launchs · 1 partnership · 2 awards |
| 2 | The Carlstar Group Manufacturer and supplier of tires to aftermarket 69Fin. health top 19%Tech top 30%Market top 32%Funding top 32% All 10 signals ▾Fin. healthtop 19% Techtop 30% Markettop 32% Fundingtop 32% Moattop 33% Patentstop 44% Innovationbottom 49% Growthbottom 49% Globalbottom 32% Newsbottom 27% Fin. health: Revenue ~$1.1B (FY2023) · Net margin 12.1% Tech: 41 technologies across 6/8 capability areas · Cloud: Amazon Alb, Amazon Web Services rank vs industry peers · Fliar Intelligence Index 69/100 | $655M | 47 mo ago | Acquired | — | 1995 | WordPressApple iCloud MailMicrosoft 365+28 | 23 patents Seed planting devices and non‑pneumatic tire manufacturing technologies. | — |
| 3 | Rough Country Online retailers of automotive parts | $389M | 108 mo ago | Acquired | — | 1996 | ContentfulTypeScriptGraphQL+25 | — | — |
| 4 | Yoshi Solutions for mobile vehicle inspection and maintenance 45Funding top 28%Talent top 38%Tech top 44%Growth top 45% All 8 signals ▾Fundingtop 28% Talenttop 38% Techtop 44% Growthtop 45% Globalbottom 39% Moatbottom 38% Marketbottom 33% Newsbottom 21% Funding: Raised $90.7M across 6 rounds · 6 rounds over 10 yrs (0.6/yr) Talent: 2 named leaders on record · 2 C-suite/founder profiles curated rank vs industry peers · Fliar Intelligence Index 45/100 | $91M | 26 mo ago | Series C | Daniel Hunter Co-Founder | 2015 | Cart FunctionalityNode.jsReact+19 | — | — |
| 5 | Heckethorn Manufacturing Manufacturer and supplier of metal parts. | $5M | 192 mo ago | Acquired | Timothy Masek CEO & President | 1938 | — | — | — |
| 6 | Advanced Decorative Systems Global leader in decorative plastics for automotive, medical, and consumer markets | $2M | 214 mo ago | Series A | Jim Conaty CEO | 2005 | — | — | — |
| 7 | Washtopia Operator of facilities providing vehicle cleaning and detailing services to customers | $750K | 85 mo ago | Seed | Jason Vandermark President & CEO | 2016 | Cart FunctionalityWooCommerceWordPress+26 | — | — |
| 8 | DriveOn Online platform connecting car enthusiasts to share each other's cars | $400K | 116 mo ago | Deadpooled | Steven Frisch Co-Founder & Co- CEO | 2016 | — | — | — |
| 9 | Celebrity Coaches Provider of luxury transportation fleet of buses and trailers for travel | — | 27 mo ago | Late Stage | Ronald Lambert CEO | 2005 | WordPressMySQLPHP+15 | — | — |
| 10 | Highline Warren Distributor of automotive chemicals, lubricants, and other materials | — | 87 mo ago | Acquired | Darcy Curran CEO | 1922 | QuillVimeolit-html+14 | — | — |
| 11 | AutoZone Retailer of automotive replacement parts and accessories | — | 138 mo ago | Public | Pitt Hyde Founder | 1979 | Apple iCloud MailTypeScriptJava+28 | — | — |
Top 11 Auto companies in Tennessee
#1
Series C · Nashville, Tennessee · founded 2015 · 40 employees$90.7Mraised▾
Solutions for mobile vehicle inspection and maintenance. It provides virtual regulatory vehicle inspections, preventative maintenance, and electric vehicle charging services to fleet operators and commercial vehicle drivers. The solutions aim to reduce downtime, operational costs, and environmental impact. With a focus on fleet management, it is positioned to transform the automotive industry through its mobile services.
- Apr 2024Series C$26M
- Jul 2023Series B$25.7M
- Feb 2022Series B—
- Dec 2020Series B$23M
#2
Acquired · Franklin, Tennessee · founded 1995 · 1361 employees$655Mraised▾
Carlstar Group is a manufacturer, supplier and exporter of tires to aftermarket. The manufactured components include tires and wheels for ATVs, UTVs and automotives. Serves other industries such as agriculture and construction. It owns brands such as Carlisle, ITP, Cragar, Black Rock, Marastar and Unique.
- Jul 2022Conventional Debt$275M
- Feb 2018Conventional Debt$130M
- Dec 2013Conventional Debt$250M
#3
Funding Raised · Nashville, Tennessee · founded 1990 · 1337 employees$1.1Braised▾
Manufacturer and supplier of tyres
- Feb 2021Conventional Debt$1.1B
#4
Acquired · Dyersburg, Tennessee · founded 1996 · 275 employees$389Mraised▾
Online retailers of automotive parts
- May 2017Conventional Debt$235M
- 2015Conventional Debt$154M
#5
Acquired · Dyersburg, Tennessee · founded 1938 · 160 employees$5Mraised▾
Manufacturer of metal design and parts for the automotive industry. The company operates as a supplier for light vehicle exhaust hangers and other exhaust hardware components and products that specializes in tube forming, solid rod forming, robotic and mig welding and progressive stamping for the automotive industry.
#6
Seed · Nashville, Tennessee · founded 2016 · 10 employees$750Kraised▾
Operator of facilities providing vehicle cleaning and detailing services to customers. The company offers various wash packages and a membership program for frequent users. Additional services include options for fundraising and community support initiatives. They also provide retail merchandise and gift cards for purchase.
- May 2019Seed$750K
#7
Series A · Millington, Tennessee · founded 2005 · 114 employees$1.7Mraised▾
Global leader in decorative plastics for automotive, medical, and consumer markets. They specialize in the design and manufacture of decorative plastic components, offering experience and innovation to realize customer visions. Their solutions-focused approach utilizes a wide array of tools and talent to deliver high-quality products. With global capabilities and a vertically integrated manufacturing process, they ensure product delivery where needed. The company's creative product development team collaborates closely with customers to design and produce parts at the right price. They provide services for dials, appliqués, bezels, and touch panels.
- Aug 2008Series A$1.7M
- 2007Series A—
- 2005Seed—
#8
Deadpooled · Nashville, Tennessee · founded 2016$400Kraised▾
DriveOn is an online platform which connects car enthusiasts to share each other's cars. It helps car enthusiasts to avoid the hassles of buying and selling cars every time by joining its community where they can list their cars into the DriveOn network and take someone else's car whose value is within $8,000 of theirs. Users are charged $59 per month service fee and the cost to ship the car to them. All its customers are insured through the same insurance company. It is scheduled to launch in early 2017.
- Oct 2016Seed$400K
#9
Late Stage · Hendersonville, Tennessee · founded 2005—raised▾
Celebrity Coaches provides luxury transportation services with state-of-the-art interior designs and top-quality technology. The company offers a fleet of buses and trailers for safe and comfortable travel. Allied Industrial Partners has made a strategic investment in Celebrity Coaches.
#10
Acquired · Memphis, Tennessee · founded 1922 · 1232 employees—raised▾
Distributor of automotive chemicals, lubricants, and other materials
#11
Public · Memphis, Tennessee · founded 1979 · 2042 employees—raised▾
Retailer of automotive replacement parts and accessories. It also has 4400+ physical stores in the US, Puerto Rico, and Mexico, selling auto parts lines for cars, SUVs, vans, or light trucks, including new and remanufactured hard parts, maintenance items, and accessories. In 2022, the company recorded annual revenues of $16.89B and a net profit of $2.42B.
Funding & investor landscape
Notable founders
Market landscape — 10 sub-themes by coverage
Share of Auto coverage by sub-theme.
Regulatory-risk over time rising
Funding & growth over time
funding rising · growth rising
What Tennessee researches in autonomous vehicles
Tennessee Technological University and University of Tennessee at Knoxville lead optimistic autonomous-vehicle research, focusing predominantly on safety, VANETs, and adversarial robustness, with recent output surging post-2020.
- Tennessee Technological University9
- University of Tennessee at Knoxville8
- Middle Tennessee State University3
- East Tennessee State University2
- University of Tennessee at Chattanooga2
Common questions
Rohit lives in the feed. He covers what's moving right now — the funding rounds, launches and shifts breaking across the trade press — and ties them back to where the sector is heading.