TechCrunch has named the five finalists in this year's Startup Battlefield at Disrupt 2026, whittled down from 20 presenting startups — themselves selected from more than 2,500 applicants worldwide.
The finalists span the event's four themes of space and physical AI, energy and manufacturing, health tech and life sciences, and enterprise and security. Apate.ai fields thousands of AI agents that pose as potential victims to engage scammers and extract information from them.
Intero Biosystems is pitching miniature human intestines so drugmakers can test compounds on lab-grown tissue rather than animals, while Flox Intelligence builds wildlife-deterrent devices that identify animals on-device and emit targeted sound.
The finals begin Thursday at 11:30 a.m. Pacific, streamed live from Disrupt. The winner takes home the Startup Battlefield Cup and $100,000 in equity-free funding.
