Best Auto Tech Companies in Tennessee, United States
The 51 best Auto Tech companies in Tennessee, United States in 2026, ranked by funding and momentum. Funding, investors, founders, valuation, tech stack and live signals. Top: BlueOval SK.
Our analysis of 69 Auto Tech companies
$46.2b in tracked funding; 92% of the stack-profiled cohort runs cloud-native; funding activity peaked in 2025.
Ranked: Best Auto Tech companies in Tennessee
| # | Company | Disclosed funding | Last round | Stage | Founder | Founded | Tech stack | Patents & IP focus | Recent signals |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | BlueOval SK Manufacturer of lithium-ion batteries designed for electric vehicle applications 42Partners top 32%Funding top 33%Tech top 33%Talent top 38% All 8 signals ▾Partnerstop 32% Fundingtop 33% Techtop 33% Talenttop 38% Newstop 39% Growthtop 50% Marketbottom 34% Globalbottom 25% Partners: 2 partnership announcements in 12 mo (3 in 24 mo) Funding: Raised $9.2B across 1 rounds · 1 rounds over 3 yrs (0.3/yr) rank vs industry peers · Fliar Intelligence Index 42/100 | $9.2B | 37 mo ago | Funding Raised | Michael Adams Co-CEO | 2022 | Cart FunctionalitySquarespace CommerceSquarespace+17 | — | — |
| 2 | 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 | 27 mo ago | Series C | Daniel Hunter Co-Founder | 2015 | Cart FunctionalityNode.jsReact+19 | — | — |
| 3 | Whisper Aero Developer of electric propulsion systems for aviation, defense, and commercial sectors | $40M | 15 mo ago | Series A | Mark Moore Co-Founder & CEO | 2021 | WebflowApple iCloud MailMicrosoft 365+9 | 105 patents Advanced aerodynamic fan and propulsor systems for aircraft propulsion and airflow control | 1 partnership |
| 4 | LeMond Manufacturer of electric-bicycles | $12M | 105 mo ago | Funding Raised | — | 1986 | Cart FunctionalityShopifyShop Pay+24 | — | — |
| 5 | Preteckt Predictive maintenance & remote diagnostics of vehicles | $7M | 40 mo ago | Acquired | Sasha Kucharczyk Co-founder and COO | 2014 | WordPressMySQLPHP+25 | — | — |
| 6 | Splitsecnd Tech-enabled solution for carsh detection | $6M | 112 mo ago | Deadpooled | Mel Taylor CEO & President | 2010 | — | — | — |
| 7 | GRIDSMART Traffic management system | $6M | 191 mo ago | Acquired | — | 2006 | — | — | — |
| 8 | Washtopia Operator of facilities providing vehicle cleaning and detailing services to customers | $750K | 86 mo ago | Seed | Jason Vandermark President & CEO | 2016 | Cart FunctionalityWooCommerceWordPress+26 | — | — |
| 9 | Cabsolutely Cab-sharing app on airports | $605K | 122 mo ago | Deadpooled | Virág Réti Co-Founder & CEO | 2014 | — | — | — |
| 10 | DriveOn Online platform connecting car enthusiasts to share each other's cars | $400K | 118 mo ago | Deadpooled | Steven Frisch Co-Founder & Co- CEO | 2016 | — | — | — |
Top 12 Auto Tech companies in Tennessee
#1
Series A · Crossville, Tennessee · founded 2021 · 25 employees$39.5Mraised▾
Developer of electric propulsion systems for aviation, defense, and commercial sectors. The company focuses on creating quieter, more efficient, and scalable electric engines. These engines are designed for use in aircraft, drones, and other applications. The company aims to provide solutions that reduce noise and improve performance.
- Apr 2025Grant (prize money)$500K
- Apr 2023Series A$32M
- Aug 2021Series A$7.5M
#2
Funding Raised · Brownsville, Tennessee · founded 2022$9.2Braised▾
Manufacturer of lithium-ion batteries designed for electric vehicle applications. The company focuses on developing battery technologies for cleaner transportation. Its batteries are designed for safety, high efficiency, and high capacity. The batteries aim to enable faster charging and longer travel distances for electric vehicles.
- Jun 2023Conventional Debt$9.2B
#3
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
#4
Acquired · Memphis, Tennessee · founded 2014 · 45 employees$6.7Mraised▾
Predictive maintenance & remote diagnostics of vehicles. It provides truck owners with sensor units that record data from different components within a vehicle and sends it to the cloud. The data is then analyzed to monitor & predict the health of the vehicle and provide alerts to the fleet owners/drivers.
- Apr 2023Series A$2M
- Feb 2020Series A$1.7M
- Dec 2018Series A$2.7M
- Feb 2017Seed—
#5
Funding Raised · Knoxville, Tennessee · founded 1986 · 23 employees$12.1Mraised▾
Manufacturer of electric-bicycles. The company develops various models of electric bicycles like Prolog, Dutch, and Road. It offers features like carbon-fiber body, 11-speed drive train system, 250w motor, integrated headlight, variant colors, and more. Also, it offers mobile applications for riders which are available for both Android and iOS platforms.
- Oct 2017Grant (prize money)$3.9M
- Feb 2017Conventional Debt$4.8M
- May 2016Conventional Debt$3.3M
#6
Deadpooled · Nashville, Tennessee · founded 2010 · 5 employees$6.1Mraised▾
Splitsecnd provides tech-enabled solution for crash detection. It offers a plug and play device that needs to be placed in the vehicle. It automatically synchronized with the mobile app or web dashboard. It offers features like real-time tracking, distraction avoidance, geo-fence alerts, and more. In case of any crash or accidents it automatically sends the message to emergency contacts and ambulance for medical assistance. Also, it offers solutions for enterprises to manage the fleets, and more.
- Apr 2017Seed$1.6M
- Sep 2016Seed—
- May 2016Conventional Debt$2.4M
- Jul 2014Seed$250K
#7
Acquired · Knoxville, Tennessee · founded 2006 · 75 employees$6Mraised▾
Gridsmart is a traffic management system that helps to change traffic lights in response to traffic demands. It uses a fisheye camera-based system for traffic data collection, and a patented GS2 processor to track and analyze the data. The system enables real-time remote monitoring & assessment to control traffic signals.
- Aug 2010Series A$6M
#8
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
#9
Deadpooled · Memphis, Tennessee · founded 2014$605Kraised▾
Cabsolutely provides full IT and marketing solution for cab companies and makes them able to reach the users. For passengers, it provides the Cabsolutely mobile app which aggregates the local, licensed drivers. Graduated from Start Co's Upstart, a GAN accelerator in Summer 2014.
- Jun 2016Seed$500K
- Nov 2014Seed$105K
#10
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
#11
Deadpooled · Memphis, Tennessee · founded 2011$15Kraised▾
A Smarter City provides municipal mesh networks and interactive networking software to enable powerful real-time assessments of a city's workings. A Smarter City supplies a city-wide interface to their sensor networking platforms. Their demonstration deployment enables parking garage owners and operators a real-time audit of their spaces while giving consumers accurate information on where there is space to park. Through their APIs other developers can deploy municipals solutions on top of their existing network platform and software.
- Mar 2011Seed$15K
#12
Seed · Knoxville, Tennessee · founded 2019 · 105 employees—raised▾
Provider of auto repair and financial services
- Jun 2022Seed—
Funding & investor landscape
Notable founders
Market landscape — 10 sub-themes by coverage
Share of Auto Tech 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 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.