Twenty founders have just earned the opportunity to compete for glory on the Disrupt stage. They will head to the Disrupt Stage at TechCrunch Disrupt to vie for a $100,000 prize and the coveted Disrupt Cup.
Each year, thousands of founders from around the world show us what they believe the future should look like. This year’s Top 20 are turning that future into reality—from organs to space and everything in between.
Among this group of finalists, a recurring theme emerges: making the previously invisible measurable.
These founders are seeking ways to understand signals we previously couldn’t capture, build models capable of predicting overly complex systems, and transform the physical world into data that machines can truly act upon. They are measuring biological clocks within the human body and growing miniature human organs in labs; they are training robots to perform increasingly complex physical tasks and modeling the real world with sufficient detail to predict what might happen next—even including the behavior of wildlife. They are extracting intelligence from scam calls and exploring new ways to harness the computational power already orbiting above us.
Of course, there's also that company trying to launch cargo into space using a massive hydrogen-powered cannon.
This group is anything but low-key.
These 20 companies are not connected by a single technology or industry. What truly unites them is an ambition to understand more dimensions of the world around us—biological, physical, industrial, and digital—and to use that understanding to make better decisions, automate tasks that previously required human intervention, and solve problems that once seemed too complex to tackle.
Now, they will have six minutes on the Disrupt stage to prove it.
Here are the Top 20 of the 2026 Startup Battlefield.
Tuesday, October 13
Startup Battlefield Semifinal 1 (10:00–11:15 AM)
Space and Physics AI
- Longshot Space: Revolutionizing space transportation economics by delivering cargo to orbit at a cost of $50 per kilogram using hydrogen-powered kinetic launchers.
- Veritas: Protects luxury brands with custom microchips that verify authenticity and enable connected post-purchase experiences.
- Laplace Intelligence: Building agent-based world models to simulate counterfactual future scenarios for cities, ports, and airports before taking action.
- Flox Intelligence: Uses real-time AI to detect animal behavior and safely guide animals away, preventing fatal wildlife collisions at airports and railways.
- Satlyt: Help satellite operators unlock and monetize idle computing power—turn satellites into virtual AI data centers with just one line of code.
Semifinal Match 2 (1:00 PM – 2:15 PM)
Energy and Manufacturing
- LNK Energies: Delivers clean hydrogen at a lower cost than diesel through breakthrough compact reactor technology, compatible with existing diesel infrastructure.
- Helix Carbon: Electrochemically upgrades and repurposes blast furnace off-gas as a fossil fuel alternative, helping steel manufacturers reduce emissions and fuel costs on-site.
- IndustrialNext: Deploy AI-driven robotic systems that learn from production data and adapt to new products, automating high-precision, touch-intensive assembly tasks.
- Niobia AI: Helps process and materials engineers reduce root cause analysis that once took weeks to just minutes, using AI with domain-specific expertise.
- Licube: Produces ultra-high-purity lithium and lithium isotopes (Li-6/Li-7), critical inputs for nuclear fusion and advanced materials.
Wednesday, October 14
Semifinal Match 3 (10:00–11:15 AM)
Health Technology and Life Sciences
- Mosqitter: Detects and prevents the spread of mosquito-borne diseases through a real-time disease intelligence platform, transforming sensor networks into early warning systems for national health agencies.
- Hiyd AI: Delivers proactive health insights through an ultra-thin, discreet wearable tracker and AI app, integrating data from sleep, exercise, and nutrition.
- TimeTeller GmbH: Measures the human circadian rhythm using molecular diagnostics and AI to determine the optimal timing for treatment, enhancing efficacy and reducing side effects.
- NTangible: Helps coaches and management make more informed talent decisions by quantifying athletes' performance under pressure and providing validated cognitive scores.
- Intero Biosystems: Accelerates drug development by producing miniature human organs, helping pharmaceutical companies identify safer and more effective drugs while reducing clinical trial costs.
Semifinal Match 4 (1:30 PM – 2:45 PM)
Business and Security
- Apate.ai: Deploy conversational AI bots to engage with scammers and transform interactions into real-time intelligence for banks, telecom companies, and governments to dismantle fraud networks.
- CedarDB: Providing the Data Layer for the AI Era—Integrating real-time trading and analytics into a single engine, with AI agents unable to bypass protections built directly into the database system.
- Prismm: Helps banks retain deposits and client relationships across generations through automated security inheritance processes and financial continuity infrastructure.
- Floqer: Streamlines B2B sales by aggregating customer data from over 80 sources and stitching every interaction into a timeline that can be retrieved in milliseconds, enabling AI agents to take action.
Then only five remain.
After four semifinals held over two days, five companies will advance to the Startup Battlefield finals on Thursday, October 15.
Before the finalists take the stage at 11:30 AM, we’ll also welcome Glīd, Nephrogen, and Molecule.one back to the Disrupt stage to share what has changed since their time on Startup Battlefield.
At 4:15 PM, a company will be crowned the 2026 Startup Battlefield champion, taking home $100,000 and the Disrupt Cup.
If you've started to miss the live atmosphere, it's not too late. Get 50% off last-minute Disrupt tickets and experience it all in person.
Startup Battlefield is sponsored and supported by Google for Startups and SAP.