Bengaluru Becomes Asia's Second Best AI Native Cluster, Ranks Among Top 6 Startup Ecosystems
Bengaluru, Karnataka: India’s Bengaluru has become Asia’s second best AI-native cluster after China’s Beijing according to the latest Global Startup Ecosystem Report (GSER) 2026 launched at VivaTech, Paris on Wednesday, June 17.
While the city ranked as the top 6 startup ecosystem in Asia, it ranked 15 among the top 40 global startup ecosystems.
Notably, Bengaluru slipped to the 15th place from the earlier 14th. New York’s Silicon Valley and London retained the top three positions in the world with no change in rankings from last year. Bengaluru scored 9 in performance and R&D, 8 in AI-native cluster, and 7 in funding and market-reach.
The reports observes six key success factors including performance (in terms of exits, ecosystem value and startup success), funding, market reach, talent and experience, AI-native cluster and R&D Engine of each ecosystem to determine the rankings.
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However, Bengaluru scored only 1 in term of quality and access to technology. But, the city scored 10 in terms of cost efficiency average of software engineer salaries and number of STEM students and graduates. The salary of a software engineer in the city remain low. As of 2025, the salary is recorded $19.6K, much lesser than the global average of $54K and the regional(Asian) average of $27K.
