Indian Automotive Technology Companies Attracted $1.3 Billion in 97 Funding Rounds in 2026

Albert has successfully raised $55 million in a Series B funding round, with the funds designated for advancing artificial intelligence in scientific research. The leadership of this round was secured by TCV, and new investors joined, including Delta-v Capital, Socium Ventures, High Sage Ventures, Coral Capital, and Legion VC.

Truffle Capital led the financing, with participation from existing investors such as Coatue, J.P. Morgan Growth Equity Partners, Index Ventures, and Applied Ventures. The company plans to use the raised capital to further refine its chemistry-based platform.

Located in Oakland, California, Albert develops an operating system for materials science and chemistry. This platform integrates specialized AI with corporate security, management, and integration features, such as no data storage, granular access control, and audit trails of reasoning.

Albert provides services to organizations with complex research challenges facing evolving regulations and disrupted supply chains. Among the company's clients are BASF, Henkel, Clorox, Kenvue, and Akzo Nobel. Albert's goal is to help these companies' scientists faster transform experimental data into innovative products.

Albert's model, named Valence, is chemically specific and demonstrates an accuracy 45 times higher than general AI when answering scientific questions. This accuracy metric was achieved in a new study accompanying the funding announcement. Valence was trained on text processing and composition and function identification.

The method mimics the ability of an experienced chemist to distinguish between similar compositions and materials, as well as understand how minor changes can significantly impact an experiment. In chemistry, for instance, the slightest deviations in ingredients, procedures, or experimental conditions can lead to different results. Albert handles this through domain-specific intelligence and its Form Bench benchmark for formal chemistry.

Albert asserts that this benchmark will set a new standard for evaluation in this highly specialized field. The Albert platform combines scientific knowledge, AI tools, integrations, and regulatory control into a single environment. It allows scientists to interact with research data using natural language. By querying Albert, users coordinate tools, agents, and models to support complex scientific work.

The system helps teams find institutional knowledge and avoid repeating past experiments. It is capable of suggesting formula candidates, assisting in experiment design, and analyzing large datasets. These capabilities aim to eliminate bottlenecks in research and improve decision-making processes.

Furthermore, Albert supports enterprise requirements regarding data security and controlled access. Its chemistry-specific approach enables organizations to link information across various research systems, facilitating the discovery and reuse of valuable experimental knowledge.

Over the past year, Albert has demonstrated significant platform growth. Project creation increased 26-fold as Albert OS was implemented in organizational research functions. The number of scientists using the platform grew sixfold across 44 countries. These achievements reflect growing interest in specialized AI for corporate research.

Workflow creation also increased fourfold as more teams adopted various research processes on the platform. Ask Albert transformed from an AI search assistant into a broader R&D partner in just six months. Client feedback highlights the value of connecting disparate scientific information. Kenvue noted that the partnership with Albert improved connections within the overall data platform, while AkzoNobel used Ask Albert to query information covering raw materials and lab journal entries. Albert intends to use the new funding to expand its capabilities and accelerate product development.

NuSynth Technologies, a joint platform focused on research and development for innovations in complex chemistry, has successfully raised ₹36.5 crore (equivalent to approximately $4 million) in seed funding. This round was co-led by the funds Avaana Capital and Shastra VC.

The capital raised will be used to develop NuSynth's R&D and technological capabilities, build an initial portfolio of patented processes, scale up capacity, and strengthen the company's team.

Despite significant growth in chemical manufacturing, India continues to rely on complex multi-step synthetic routes for many critical molecules. This leads to increased costs for raw materials and energy, dependence on imported intermediates and hazardous reagents, and creates difficulties in commercial scaling. This situation opens opportunities for deepening domestic R&D and building indigenous innovation capabilities in chemical processes.

NuSynth addresses this problem by redesigning chemical processes from scratch, rather than making minor adjustments. The company re-evaluates starting materials, reaction pathways, and process economics to develop synthetic routes that improve cost efficiency, product yield, cycle time, safety, sustainability, and scalability.

Experimental data feeds into NuSynth's artificial intelligence mechanism, forming its own knowledge base. This accelerates the selection of future molecules, experimentation, and commercial scaling, thereby shortening traditional R&D cycles.

Starting with high-yield sectors such as pharmaceuticals and electronic chemicals, the company is gradually expanding its process innovation capabilities across numerous chemistry-related sectors.

According to Poorvank Purohit, Co-founder and CEO of NuSynth Technologies, 'We believe the next chapter will be defined by our ability to innovate in the underlying chemistry itself. Our goal is to create patented processes in India that can provide superior economics and sustainability while serving global market customers.'

The founders of NuSynth bring expertise in scientific research and development, commercialization, and business building. Poorvank Purohit, former CFO and CEO of Solara Active Pharma Sciences, brings industry experience and connections with global clients. Dr. Ramesh A R, a postdoctoral researcher at NIH, Washington, and an IISc graduate, provides scientific and research expertise.

Abhishek Deo and Dipak Bajaj possess commercial and operational experience from Zetwerk, Mstack, Ola, JPMorgan, BlackBuck, and SUN Mobility. Their team has led numerous projects from idea to scale, including companies that have achieved unicorn and public market status.

Shruti Srivastava, Partner at Avaana Capital, noted: 'We believe NuSynth's approach will improve the economics, resource efficiency, and sustainability of chemical manufacturing in critical sectors, while simultaneously creating globally competitive technology platforms from India.'

Avijeet Alaghati, Managing Partner at Shastra VC, emphasized that the NuSynth founders have assembled a rare combination of scientific depth, industry experience, and execution capability. He added: 'We believe this combination, along with the data and AI mechanism, strongly positions NuSynth to create a differentiated process innovation platform from India for global markets.'