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Tag: Startup Battlefield

  • The 22 top clean tech and energy startups from Disrupt Startup Battlefield | TechCrunch

    Every year, TechCrunch’s Startup Battlefield pitch contest draws thousands of applicants. We whittle those applications down to the top 200 contenders, and of them, the top 20 compete on the big stage to become the winner, taking home the Startup Battlefield Cup and a cash prize of $100,000. But the remaining 180 startups all blew us away as well in their respective categories and compete in their own pitch competition.

    Here is the full list of the clean tech and energy Startup Battlefield 200 selectees, along with a note on why they landed in the competition. 

    AraBat 

    What it does: AraBat has developed a recycling technology that recovers critical metals like nickel, cobalt, and others from spent lithium‑ion batteries. 

    Why it’s noteworthy: The company’s process is bio-based, using plant waste like citrus peels rather than toxic chemicals.  

    Aruna Revolution 

    What it does: Aruna Revolution has developed a compostable natural fiber menstrual pad from agricultural by-products. 

    Why it’s noteworthy: Aruna has redesigned the menstrual pad into a product that works well yet still decomposes quickly and avoids plastic and harmful chemicals. 

    CarbonBridge 

    What it does: CarbonBridge builds bioreactors for microbial gas fermentation that transforms waste gases like methane and CO₂ into valuable molecules. 

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    Why it’s noteworthy: CarbonBridge says its technology is more efficient than other methods to synthesize molecules. 

    Carbon Negative Solutions 

    What it does: Carbon Negative uses an AI-powered platform to turn industrial wastes and minerals into cement. 

    Why it’s noteworthy: The company says its cement can be used with standard equipment, making it affordable, yet its process transforms this major building material to become carbon negative. 

    COI Energy 

    What it does: COI Energy runs a marketplace where enterprises can buy and sell excess energy capacity, as well as get better, predictive insights into their energy needs. 

    Why it’s noteworthy: By letting enterprise campuses share their reserved energy allotments with each other, the company instantly optimizes grid usage. 

    Coral 

    What it does: Coral offers an AI-powered carbon accounting management platform. 

    Why it’s noteworthy: It automates data collection and reporting of the energy footprint and uses the blockchain to trace, and stay accountable for, carbon credits.  

    Emobi 

    What it does: Emobi offers an AI-powered cloud platform for universal electric vehicle charging. 

    Why it’s noteworthy: The company’s service supports secure automatic charging for EV charging networks, even on legacy hardware. 

    EnyGy Limited 

    What it does: EnyGy has invented a line of higher performance ultracapacitors, an energy storage device that rests somewhere between a conventional capacitor and a battery. 

    Why it’s noteworthy: The company makes its ultracapacitors by melding activated carbon electrodes with a state-of-the-art electrolyte and claims this boosts energy densities up to double the capacity of alternatives, while remaining cost-effective. 

    Ganiga Innovation 

    What it does: Ganiga offers an AI- and robotics-powered garbage bin called Hoooly that recognizes and sorts recyclables.

    Why it’s noteworthy: Ganiga is selling Hoooly to enterprise campuses and industrial sites like airports to boost recycling rates, offering analytics that assist with ESG reporting. 

    Gemini Energy 

    What it does: Gemini has developed a fuel cell technology that can generate power on-site, converting gas into electricity without combustion, it says. 

    Why it’s noteworthy: The company is marketing its clean tech power generator at data centers and says its systems can be deployed in months versus the years needed to upgrade a conventional power grid. 

    Helix Earth 

    What it does: Helix Earth has created products for earth from liquid-gas chemistry designed for spacecraft, including ultra-efficient HVAC and carbon capture systems. 

    Why it’s noteworthy: The company says its processes are far more energy-efficient while being more affordable and can be retrofitted to commercial rooftops.  

    HKG Energy 

    What it does: HKG energy has created a next-generation silicon material for lithium-ion batteries. 

    Why it’s noteworthy: HKG says its tech increases battery performances by 80% yet costs up to 40% less than those using conventional materials. 

    HomeBoost 

    What it does: HomeBoost offers a do-it-yourself energy assessment system that helps homeowners identify leaky windows and find rebate opportunities and other ways to cut their energy bills.

    Why it’s noteworthy: It ships to homeowners custom hardware that, coupled with a smartphone app, scans the home and then home energy experts review and produce the report. 

    HyWatts

    What it does: HyWatts supplies modular systems that generate energy on-site for industrial uses.

    Why it’s noteworthy: It calls its system Power-Plant-in-a-Box, which integrates hydrogen storage and reversible fuel cells for, it says, zero-emission, off-grid electricity at far lower costs than battery storage.

    Kaio Labs 

    What it does: Kaio Labs develops CO2 conversion technologies to transform waste carbon dioxide into valuable chemicals like carbon monoxide, formic acid, and ethylene. 

    Why it’s noteworthy: Kaio uses an AI-powered workflow to automate discovery, with the goal being to extract these chemicals in a cost-competitive way. 

    MacroCycle Technologies 

    What it does: MacroCycle has invented a patented polyester textiles recycling technology.

    Why it’s noteworthy: The company promises to make recycled plastic as inexpensive as virgin material through tech that separates the desirable synthetic fibers from waste textiles. 

    Namu Robotics Corporation 

    What it does: Namu Robotics provides tree-planting robots geared toward re-forestry projects.

    Why it’s noteworthy: The world doesn’t have the resources to replant trees fast enough between the labor involved and the terrain, so Namu’s tech promises to automate the process. 

    Naware 

    What it does: Naware offers an AI-powered robotic weed killer that attaches to lawn-mowing equipment to kill weeds as the lawn is mowed.

    Why it’s noteworthy: Not only does it auto-detect weeds, but it also uses hot steam to kill them, rather than toxic herbicides.  

    Segura 

    What it does: Segura offers a proprietary method to test water quality that delivers nearly instant results without the need to hire testing experts.

    Why it’s noteworthy: Segura has invented a test strip that is reminiscent of those used for diabetes monitoring and is as easy to use. 

    ShellVive 

    What it does: ShellVive has created a method to filter water by repurposing oyster shells. 

    Why it’s noteworthy: ShellVive solutions take an abundant agricultural waste product, discarded oyster shells, and turns them into an affordable, eco-friendly water filtration material. 

    Whisper Energy 

    What it does: Whisper Energy is developing an AI-native sensor to improve energy efficiency in commercial buildings.

    Why it’s noteworthy: The company is targeting small to midsized buildings with its easy-to-install sensors and system as an affordable alternative to large-scale energy automation solutions.

    Xatoms 

    What it does: Xatoms has created a photocatalyst — a light-activated chemical — that can remove bacteria, viruses, chemicals, and heavy metals from polluted water. 

    Why it’s noteworthy: The company is using AI and quantum chemistry to find new water-treatment chemicals.

    Julie Bort

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  • The 9 top cybersecurity startups from Disrupt Startup Battlefield  | TechCrunch

    Every year, TechCrunch’s Startup Battlefield pitch contest draws thousands of applicants. We whittle those applications down to the top 200 contenders, and of them, the top 20 compete on the big stage to become the winner, taking home the Startup Battlefield Cup and a cash prize of $100,000. But the remaining 180 startups all blew us away as well in their respective categories and compete in their own pitch competition. 

    Here is the full list of the cybersecurity Startup Battlefield 200 selectees, along with a note on why they landed in the competition.

    AIM Intelligence 

    What it does: AIM offers enterprise cybersecurity products that both protect against new AI-enabled attacks and use AI in that protection. 

    Why it’s noteworthy: AIM uses AI to conduct penetration tests of AI-optimized attacks and to protect corporate AI systems with customized guardrails, and it offers an AI safety planning tool. 

    Corgea 

    What it does: Corgea is an AI-driven enterprise security product that can scan code for flaws as well as find broken code intended to implement security measures such as user authentication.  

    Why it’s noteworthy: The product allows the creation of AI agents that can secure code and works with, it says, any popular language and their libraries. 

    CyDeploy 

    What it does: CyDeploy offers a security product that automates asset discovery and mapping of all the apps and devices on a network.  

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    Why it’s noteworthy: Once the assets are mapped, the product creates digital twins to sandbox testing and allows security orgs to use AI to automate other security processes as well. 

    Cyntegra 

    What it does: Cyntegra offers a hardware-plus-software solution that prevents ransomware attacks. 

    Why it’s noteworthy: By locking away a secure backup of the system, ransomware doesn’t win. It can restore the operating system, apps, data, and credentials in the minutes after an attack.  

    HACKERverse 

    What it does: HACKERverse’s product deploys autonomous AI agents to implement known hacker attacks against a company’s defenses in “isolated battlefield.” 

    Why it’s noteworthy: The tool tests and verifies that vendor security tools actually work as advertised.  

    Mill Pond Research 

    What it does: Mill Pond detects and secures unmanaged AI. 

    Why it’s noteworthy: As employees adopt AI to assist them in their jobs, this tool can detect AI tools that are accessing sensitive data or otherwise creating potential security issues in the organization. 

    Polygraf AI 

    What it does: Polygraf AI offers small language models tuned for cybersecurity purposes. 

    Why it’s noteworthy: Enterprises use the Polygraf models to enforce compliance, protect data, detect unauthorized AI usage, and spot deepfakes, among other examples. 

    TruSources 

    What it does: TruSources can detect AI deepfakes, be they audio, video, images. 

    Why it’s noteworthy: This tech can work in real time for areas like identity authentication, age verification, and identity fraud prevention. 

    ZEST Security 

    What it does: AI-powered enterprise security platform that helps infosec teams detect and solve cloud security issues. 

    Why it’s noteworthy: Zest helps teams speedily keep up with and mitigate known but unpatched security vulnerabilities and unifies vulnerability management across clouds and apps.

    Julie Bort

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  • The 9 top biotech startups from Disrupt Startup Battlefield | TechCrunch

    Every year, TechCrunch’s Startup Battlefield pitch contest draws thousands of applicants. We whittle those applications down to the top 200 contenders, and of them, the top 20 compete on the big stage to become the winner, taking home the Startup Battlefield Cup and a cash prize of $100,000. But the remaining 180 startups all blew us away as well in their respective categories and compete in their own pitch competition.

    Here is the full list of the biotech and pharma Startup Battlefield 200 selectees, along with a note on why they landed in the competition. 

    CasNx

    What it does: CasNx has invented a new kind of antivirus treatment for organs from organ donors.

    Why it’s noteworthy: The startup has invented a gene-editing CRISPR kit that eliminates viruses and installs “universal donor” markers while the organ is being preserved outside the body. 

    Chipiron 

    What it does: Chipiron is building a light and inexpensive, open full-body MRI machine intended to make MRI cancer diagnostics more widely available. 

    Why it’s noteworthy: The medical MRI machine is being built using a superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID), a highly sensitive magnetometer that can measure extremely weak magnetic fields, more commonly used in array antennas. 

    Exactics  

    What it does: Exactics is building a platform that creates rapid diagnostic tests. 

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    Why it’s noteworthy: Exactics is attempting to make consumer diagnostic kits more widely available, beginning with at-home screening of Lyme disease, with kits for other illnesses on the roadmap.  

    Lumos Strategies OÜ  

    What it does: Lumos has created a consumer high-frequency electromagnetic device named Avara, targeted at red blood cells. 

    Why it’s noteworthy: Avara has been designed to provide gentle, non-contact “inductive therapy” to improve sleep, relaxation, and exercise recovery. 

    Miraqules 

    What it does: Miraqules developed a nanotechnology in powder form that mimics blood-clotting proteins. 

    Why it’s noteworthy: This technology provides instant blood clotting and is a unique, potentially lifesaving alternative to traditional wound treatments, particularly when treating patients on the scene of the injury. 

    Nephrogen 

    What it does: Nephrogen is creating gene therapy solutions for kidney illnesses. 

    Why it’s noteworthy: Nephrogen is solving the hardest part of the problem when it comes to gene-editing medicines. Its tech uses AI to accurately target gene-editing to the exact cells in the kidney that are causing the illness.  

    PraxisPro 

    What it does: PraxisPro is an AI-powered training system for sales and marketing roles in life science industries.  

    Why it’s noteworthy: The system provides compliance-approved content, complete with simulations and real-time analytics to ensure those who represent life science companies are properly prepared to do so. 

    Reme-D 

    What it does: Reme-D is developing reliable and affordable diagnostic tests specifically geared toward underserved communities. 

    Why it’s noteworthy: Reme-D is developing rapid diagnostic tests that are not only particularly affordable but also stable in hot and humid climates. 

    Surgicure Technologies 

    What it does: Surgicure has created a patented solution that more safely and reliably secures endotracheal tubes (ET). 

    Why it’s noteworthy: This device makes ET tubes, the flexible tubes inserted through the mouth or nose during surgeries or other treatments, safer and more comfortable for patients. 

    Julie Bort

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  • Introducing Build Mode: TechCrunch’s new podcast for founders  | TechCrunch

    Disrupt 2025 is just days away, with tickets still available here! And there’s no better time to announce that alongside our flagship event and annual Startup Battlefield 200 competition, we’re launching a brand-new TechCrunch franchise: Build Mode. 

    Hosted by Startup Battlefield Editor Isabelle Johannessen, Build Mode is a survival guide for early-stage founders navigating the messy, high-stakes chaos of building a company from scratch. No sugarcoating. No hype. Just candid conversations and tactical advice from the people who’ve done it before and have the scars (and term sheets) to prove it. 

    Starting November 13, Isabelle will sit down with founders, VCs, and operators to unpack the real stories behind the build. Each season and weekly episodes will tackle a theme that keeps founders up at night: go-to-market chaos, fundraising pressure, runaway runways, hiring misfires, and everything in between.  

    Whether you are an Apple, Spotify, or YouTube person, you can tune in to Build Mode wherever podcasts are found. Bonus content and exclusive clips will drop on TechCrunch’s social channels, including Instagram, X, and TikTok. If you’re not subscribed, well, the clock is ticking until we officially launch in a few weeks! 

    Check out the trailer for Build Mode, and for Season One, right here: 

    Season One of Build Mode kicks off by diving into the good, the bad, and the gritty reality of getting your product into the market. From big splashes to epic fails, we’re unpacking what it really takes to move from idea to execution. And we’re excited to have our Season One sponsor, J.P. Morgan, along with us for the ride.

    But that’s just the beginning. 

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    We want Build Mode to be more than a podcast; we want it to be a community of builders helping other builders succeed, just like the 1,700+ startups that have come through the Startup Battlefield program. That means we want to hear from you, the founders, operators, and curious listeners, about the questions and themes that actually keep you up at night. 

    We’ll be weaving community-sourced stories, tips, and questions into upcoming episodes, so stay tuned for how to get involved! 

    And if you were previously subscribed to our Found podcast — welcome back! You’re already part of the Build Mode community. We’re keeping the Found archive alive so you can revisit founder interviews and insights from past years. No gatekeeping, just honest stories and hard-earned lessons, shared freely for anyone bold enough to build a startup.  

    Isabelle Johannessen, Maggie Nye

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  • The ZoraSafe app wants to protect older people online and will present at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025  | TechCrunch

    Apart from antivirus apps, the cybersecurity industry has traditionally been business to business, with regular internet users left on their own to protect themselves. And older people, who did not grow up with the internet and smartphones, are perhaps the most vulnerable. 

    ZoraSafe, a startup founded by sisters Catherine Karow and Ellie King Karow wants to step in and help them out. Their idea is to create an app that not only protects older people against scammers and hackers, but also teaches them how to stay safe through gamified microlearning, as Catherine and Ellie told TechCrunch ahead of the TechCrunch Disrupt conference, where ZoraSafe will be part of Startup Battlefield.

    The app is not out yet, but Catherine and Ellie expect to launch it in a month. They said it will cost $12.99 a month for individual subscribers, and a higher rate for family and group plans.

    The first version of the app, Catherine explained in a phone call, will have several features, such as a mode to scan QR codes for malware or phishing, the ability to send suspicious SMS text messages and emails to ZoraSafe to get them checked out, and a feature to share a known scam or threat with the app so it can be added to a database to help other users.

    “We’re trying to incentivize social sharing of scams, so we can also alert the entire Zora network at once, so one person is alerted by that scam, and then we can make sure everyone in that community is protected immediately,” Catherine said.

    Future releases will also include a feature that will allow users to get ZoraSafe to join a suspicious phone call, so the company’s AI system can detect if it’s a scam or a deepfake call. In that case, however, the app will not be listening to or recording the calls, according to Catherine.  

    Once the app detects a threat, it will spin up a chat that will explain to the user what that threat was and teach them how to spot and deal with similar situations in the future, Ellie said.  

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    “The whole purpose of which is to build resilience and hopefully make it so that even if you’re not directly interacting with the app, you’re a little bit more aware when you are interacting online,” she added. 

    Ellie said that the AI engine is designed with privacy in mind, doing 85% of the processing on the device, and only 15% in the cloud, which she claimed will be “sanitized of your personal information before it leaves your device.” 

    Catherine also said they are planning to make an “NFC sticker” that will be incorporated in phone cases so that users can quickly pull up the app if they get a deepfake call, or even if they fall and need to alert their caretakers. That’s one of the ways they plan on getting around iOS’s restrictions on apps monitoring what happens on other apps. Another way is to have a “Share to ZoraSafe” option in the iOS menu that will allow users to send text messages or emails to the company’s systems.  

    Eventually, the sisters said they want to expand ZoraSafe to children, too, partner with schools, and also launch the app in different languages, starting with Spanish.  

    If you want to learn more about ZoraSafe — while also checking out dozens of other companies, hearing their pitches, and listening to guest speakers on four different stages — join us at Disrupt, October 27 to 29, in San Francisco. Learn more here.  

    Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai

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  • Dating app Cerca will show how Gen Z really dates at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025 | TechCrunch

    It’s a universally acknowledged truth that the current dating scene sucks, no matter what city you live in. Everyone has a story. And everyone has a grievance. 

    Take Myles Slayton, who completed a banking internship in New York City and saw how he and his friends struggled to find significant others in the city’s ruthless dating scene. “We’re on our phones more than ever,” he told TechCrunch. ”I thought to myself, ‘Why are dating apps terrible?’” 

    He figured that it must not be a problem with dating apps, per se, but rather the way the products work these days. Many of the popular dating apps were built with millennials in mind, but his generation, Gen Z, operates in a completely different fashion, he said. It’s a throwback to how dating used to be: People of this generation meet “through mutuals, through people in our social circles,” he said. 

    He teamed up with friends Willy Conzelman and Carter Munk and just a few months ago launched Cerca, a dating app that matches people with others already in their social circles. The company announced a $1.6 million seed round this summer and already has people buzzing: The app has around 60,000 users, mainly in New York and scattered across universities. 

    The company is part of Startup Battlefield and will show off its tech at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025 later this month in San Francisco.

    Image Credits:Cerca

    Slayton, the company’s CEO, said there is a reason Gen Z has retreated to the old ways of dating, and that’s because of the internet and the COVID pandemic. “We simply don’t trust strangers,” he said, adding that people are also deeply afraid of rejection. 

    Cerca’s product tries to address this. Users create a standard dating profile, sync their contacts, and from there, only friends or friends of friends already on the app are shown as potential matches. “The fear of strangers is eliminated,” Slayton said. All likes are anonymous, alleviating the fear of rejection. Users get four swipes a day, he said, in the hope of getting rid of the swiping fatigue and putting more emphasis on choosing a match. 

    Techcrunch event

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    “There is no world where you should be seeing 100 profiles in a minute,” he said. “You should really be taking a second to think about each profile. These are real people.” 

    The profiles first reveal the friends in common, then the background, and then the photos. “It’s not all just about looks for us,” he said. A user gets a notification that someone has liked their profile, though they won’t know who. The Cerca algorithm will boost the profile of whoever made the like into the feed of the person they’re interested in, who can then decide whether to like them back. 

    Each evening, matches are revealed, and nobody knows who made the first move. 

    Having friends in common makes it easier to vet for safety, as people can simply text their mutual friends to gather intel on who they are going on a date with. Users can also select which and how many contacts they want to share with Cerca, as well as block certain people from seeing their profiles. “You can also filter out words like dentist, doctor,” he said. “There’s no screenshotting or screen recording. Safety is paramount to us.” 

    Aside from the online world, the company has also created merchandise and is hosting events. 

    Slayton said he and his co-founders decided to apply to Startup Battlefield and knew a founder who had participated in the event. “I think it’s such an opportunity to have the U.S. and the world see who we are and to represent dating in a positive light,” he said. 

    If you want to learn from Cerca firsthand, and see dozens of additional pitches, attend valuable workshops, and make the connections that drive business results, head here to learn more about this year’s Disrupt, held October 27 to 29 in San Francisco. 

    TechCrunch Disrupt 2025

    Dominic-Madori Davis

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  • Startup Battlefield 200 applications close tomorrow | TechCrunch

    Startup Battlefield 200 applications close tomorrow | TechCrunch

    You’re running out of time to join the Startup Battlefield 200, our curated showcase of top startups from around the world and across multiple industries. This elite cohort — 200 companies strong — absolutely owns (and slays) the exhibition floor at TechCrunch Disrupt.

    Tomorrow is the last day to apply to Startup Battlefield 200

    We’re accepting applications from early-stage startups until tomorrow, June 10 at 11:59 p.m. PDT. Founders, do you have what it takes? Investors, do you want to recommend one of your startups? Beat the deadline and submit your application here today!

    Investor tip: Startup Battlefield 200 is a unique opportunity not just for founders ready for their big break, but also for investors eager to fund early-stage startups that earned the TechCrunch stamp of approval. Startup Battlefield alumni include more than 900 companies — such as Vurb, Dropbox, Mint, Yammer, and many more — with approximately 200 successful exits (IPOs or acquisitions) and a whopping $29 billion in funding raised.

    Startup Battlefield 200: The premier global launchpad

    In addition to the door-opening cachet that comes from being handpicked by TechCrunch, all SB 200 companies receive these perks, benefits and opportunities:

    Full access to Disrupt: SB 200 founders attend Disrupt for free, receive four additional passes and VIP access to all the presentations, breakouts and roundtables.

    Free exhibition space for the entire show: The SB 200 will be the only early-stage startups allowed to exhibit at Disrupt.

    Investor interest and media exposure: Investors hunting for future unicorns and journalists looking for the next big story will beeline it to the exhibition floor to meet and greet the SB 200 founders.

    Workshops and pitch training: SB 200 founders will be invited to exclusive workshops and master classes in the weeks running up to Disrupt, including special pitch training from TechCrunch staff.

    Flash-pitch to an audience of investors and TC editors: That training will come in handy when you step onto the Pitch Showcase Stage. You’ll receive invaluable feedback, and you might find your way into an investor’s portfolio.

    A shot at $100,000: TechCrunch editors will select 20 startups from the SB 200 to be Startup Battlefield finalists. Founders from those 20 companies will receive private pitch coaching, be featured in an article on TechCrunch and pitch live onstage in front of the entire Disrupt audience. The ultimate winner takes home the $100,000 equity-free prize.

    Do you have what it takes? You only have until tomorrow, June 10 at 11:59 p.m. PDT to prove it. Apply to the Startup Battlefield 200 right now. We’d love to see you in San Francisco!

    Is your company interested in sponsoring or exhibiting at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024? Contact our sponsorship sales team by filling out this form.

    Michael Schick

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