TechCrunch has named the five startups advancing to the finals of the Startup Battlefield at Disrupt 2026, narrowing a 20-company field after two days of live demos and tough questions from judges in San Francisco.
The finalists — Apate.ai, Flox Intelligence, Intero Biosystems, Industrial Next and Satlyt — will pitch again on the Disrupt stage on Thursday at 11:30 am Pacific. The champion takes home the Startup Battlefield Cup and $100,000 in equity-free funding, with the final livestreamed on TechCrunch.
The five vying for the cup
Apate.ai deploys thousands of AI agents disguised as unsuspecting victims to fight fraud.
The agents take scam calls, reply to dubious messages and emails, click on phishing links and join social media groups — mimicking people of different ages, genders and accents in multiple languages — to keep scammers engaged long enough to extract valuable intelligence.
The company says it already has bank and telecom customers.
Flox Intelligence has built a wildlife-deterrent system that skips the sirens, lights and fences. Its edge devices use perception systems trained on animal behavior: when motion is detected, an on-device camera identifies the local wildlife and emits a sound designed to repel it. Around 150 devices are already deployed in the field.
Intero Biosystems is growing human intestinal organoids — lab-grown tissues that replicate gut functionality — so researchers can study how drugs and other substances affect the body before human trials.
Unlike simpler models, its organoids incorporate multiple cell and tissue types found in the human intestine for a more precise model. The company is still validating the technology.
Industrial Next designs AI-driven, self-sufficient robotic stations built on proprietary foundation models that fuse vision, task context and motion.
The startup says production lines can be reconfigured in minutes instead of weeks without traditional programming — and some of its workstations are already helping build one of the world's most coveted smartphones.
Satlyt, which raised $8 million earlier this month, is writing software that lets multiple satellites collaboratively take on serious computing tasks in space.
It has already flown two demonstration missions, initially focused on making spacecraft operations more efficient. Its next goal: proving a shared computing cloud can work between two satellites.
A $100,000 equity-free prize
The winner of the Battlefield final is decided by a fresh panel of expert judges after a final round of pitches and demos. Beyond the $100,000 in equity-free funding and the Disrupt Cup, past finalists have used the spotlight to lock in customers, hires and follow-on funding rounds.
The final kicks off at 11:30 am Pacific on Thursday, with attendees watching live at Disrupt and everyone else able to follow along on the livestream.
Physical AI takes center stage
This year's Battlefield was built around four themes: space and physical AI, energy and manufacturing, health tech and life sciences, and enterprise and security. The shortlist shows where founder energy is heading — AI leaving the chat window behind and moving into factories, fields, labs and orbit.
Whether the winning idea comes from an AI that wastes scammers' time or one that runs on a satellite, the next few hours on the Disrupt stage will decide which frontier gets the cup.
By Hamza Faisal
