Five startups reach the Startup Battlefield final at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026
At the TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 technology conference, five of 20 pitching startups have advanced to the Startup Battlefield final. The winner will receive a cup and $100,000 in equity-free funding.
Over two days at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026, the technology outlet's conference, 20 startups took the stage in the Startup Battlefield competition. Five finalists have now been selected to compete for the top prize. The final starts Thursday at 11:30 a.m. Pacific time and can be watched in person or via livestream.
This year's competition covered four categories: space and physical AI, energy and manufacturing, health tech and life sciences, and enterprise and security. The finalists work on a wide range of problems, from miniature human organs to fighting scams to computing in space.
A different panel of expert judges will choose the winner, who will take home the Startup Battlefield Cup and $100,000, equity-free.
The finalists
Apate.ai deploys thousands of AI agents posing as innocent victims. They answer scam calls, reply to suspicious messages and emails, follow phishing links and join social media groups to lure fraudsters. The agents imitate people of different ages, genders and accents and speak various languages, trying to keep scammers engaged long enough to learn something useful.
Flox Intelligence has built a wildlife-deterrent system that departs from sirens, lights, fences, falcons and culling. Its edge devices use a motion sensor and a camera with on-device models to identify nearby animals, then play a sound suited to the species to scare them off.
Intero Biosystems is developing human intestinal organoids, lab-grown tissue that mimics the gut, to study how drugs affect the body before testing in people. The company believes its organoids are more human-relevant than simpler models because they contain multiple cell and tissue types found in the intestine.
Industrial Next builds AI-driven robotic stations. The company says a production line can be retooled in minutes rather than weeks, without traditional programming. Some of its workstations are already used in making one of the world's most popular smartphones.
Satlyt is building software that would let many satellites share large computing jobs in space. It has already flown the software on two demonstration missions. Its next goal is to show it can create a shared computing cloud between two satellites.
