The key facts

  • Winner — Intero Biosystems (Denver); the final took place at Disrupt 2026 in San Francisco; prize — the Cup and $100,000.
  • The startup grows 1-mm intestinal organoids and sells its GastroScreen product to pharma, biotech, food and chemical companies.
  • Second place — Apate (Australia): thousands of AI agents that distract scammers; clients get an analytics portal on scam attacks.

Startup Battlefield 2026 Results

Over three days at the TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 conference in San Francisco, 20 startups selected from the Startup Battlefield 200 competed for the Startup Battlefield Cup and a $100,000 prize. All participants gave live demos before judges — venture investors and technology industry leaders. Based on the competition results, TechCrunch editors, having reviewed the judges' notes, determined five finalists: Apate, Flox Intelligence, Intero Biosystems, Industrial Next and Satlyt.

The Final and the Judging Panel

The finalists presented before the final panel of judges, which included Alexa von Tobel (Inspired Capital), Chi-Hua Chien (Goodwater Capital), Dayna Grayson (Construct Capital), Karl Alomar (M13) and Stacy Brown-Philpot (Cherryrock Capital). Intero Biosystems was announced the winner, and Apate took second place.

Winner: Intero Biosystems

Intero Biosystems is a Denver-based startup founded by Charlie Childs and Madeline Eiken and spun out of the University of Michigan. The company grows lab-grown intestinal 'organoids' about 1 mm in size — tissue that mimics the human intestine. This makes it possible to study how drugs and other compounds may affect the body before human trials. The flagship product GastroScreen is sold to pharmaceutical, biotech, food and chemical companies for testing drugs and compounds.

Second Place: Apate

Apate is an Australian startup founded by Dali Kaafar, who came up with the idea during research at Macquarie University in Sydney. The company deploys thousands of AI agents that pose as unsuspecting victims: they answer scam calls, respond to suspicious messages and emails, click phishing links and join social media groups in order to distract scammers. In addition to access to the 'fleet' of agents, clients get a portal with analytics and intelligence about scam attacks targeting their users, employees, brands and products.

Program Context

Intero Biosystems and Apate have joined the ranks of Startup Battlefield winners and finalists, which previously included Trello, Discord, Cloudflare and Mint. According to TechCrunch, more than 1,700 alumni have gone through the program, collectively raising over $30 billion in investment, with more than 200 successful exits.