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TechCrunch Startup Battlefield winners: every Disrupt champion by year

Glīd, a logistics startup that builds vehicles and software to move shipping containers onto rail, is the most recent TechCrunch Startup Battlefield winner: it took the title at Disrupt 2025 in San Francisco. Salva Health won in 2024 and BioticsAI in 2023. The 2026 champion will be named on October 15, the last day of Disrupt 2026 at Moscone West in San Francisco: TechCrunch's published agenda has the five-company final from 11:30 a.m. to 12:45 p.m. PT and the winner announcement at 4:15 p.m. PT.

This page lists every Battlefield winner TechCrunch has announced at its Disrupt conferences since 2010, grouped by city, plus the TechCrunch40 and TechCrunch50 winners that came before. Each winner's name links to TechCrunch's own announcement, and the runner-up is listed where TechCrunch named one.

Main Disrupt winners: San Francisco and online (2010–2025)

Since 2020 TechCrunch has held one Disrupt a year, so this is now the main list. The 2020 and 2021 editions were held online.

• 2025: Glīd. A hybrid-electric vehicle plus software that lifts 20-foot containers and drives them straight to the rail, with no forklift needed. Runner-up: Nephrogen.
• 2024: Salva Health. A portable breast cancer detection device aimed at rural Latin American communities with little access to mammograms. Runner-up: GeCKo Materials.
• 2023: BioticsAI. Software that plugs into ultrasound machines and flags fetal malformations. Runner-up: Electrified Thermal Solutions.
• 2022: Minerva Lithium. A polymer that pulls lithium out of brine in days while using less water than conventional methods. Runner-up: Intropic Materials.
• 2021 (online): Cellino. Automated, AI-guided production of stem cells for cell therapies. Runner-up: Nth Cycle.
• 2020 (online): Canix. Resource-planning software that cuts data entry for cannabis growers. Runner-up: Matidor.
• 2019: Render. A managed cloud platform pitched as a simpler alternative to AWS, Azure and Google Cloud. Runner-up: OmniVis.
• 2018: Forethought. AI search that surfaces company knowledge, first for customer support teams. Runner-up: Unbound.
• 2017: Pi. Wireless charging for several devices within about a foot of the charger. Runner-up: Onēva.
• 2016: Mobalytics. Performance analytics and coaching for competitive gamers. Runner-up: UnifyID.
• 2015: Agrilyst. A data platform for greenhouse operators. Runner-up: Green Bits.
• 2014: Alfred. A service that coordinates household chores across on-demand providers. Runner-up: Shipstr.
• 2013: Layer. A toolkit for adding messaging, voice and video to apps with little code. Runner-up: Dryft.
• 2012: YourMechanic. Booking for independent mechanics who repair or service cars at the customer's home. Runner-up: Lit Motors.
• 2011: Shaker. An Israeli social app that turned Facebook into a virtual bar with avatars. Runner-up: Prism Skylabs.
• 2010: Qwiki. Multimedia presentations generated for search queries. Runners-up: Cloudflare and Pinger.

Disrupt New York winners (2010–2017)

TechCrunch held a spring Disrupt in New York from 2010 to 2017, each with its own Battlefield and Disrupt Cup.

• 2017: RecordGram, a mobile studio for aspiring artists to find beats and record. Runner-up: Collider.
• 2016: Beam, interactive game streaming where viewers can affect play. Runner-up: WaterO.
• 2015: Liquidity, water filtration built on a dense fiber mesh. Runner-up: DigitalGenius.
• 2014: Vurb, a contextual search app for places, films and media. Runner-up: ISI Technology.
• 2013: Enigma, search and analysis across public data sets. Runner-up: Handle.
• 2012: UberConference, PIN-free conference calls run from a visual dashboard. Runner-up: gTar.
• 2011: Getaround, peer-to-peer car rental through a phone app. Runners-up: BillGuard and Sonar.
• 2010: Soluto, PC software that diagnoses crashes and slowdowns. It was the first holder of the Disrupt Cup. Runner-up: UJAM.

Disrupt Europe, London, Berlin and Beijing winners

• Berlin 2019: Scaled Robotics, robots that 3D-map construction sites to track progress and spot problems. Runner-up: Stable.
• Berlin 2018: Legacy, sperm freezing for men who want to preserve their fertility as they age. Runner-up: Imago AI.
• Berlin 2017: Lia Diagnostics, a flushable, biodegradable pregnancy test. Runner-up: Blik.
• London 2016: Seenit, an app that lets brands collect video from their communities. Runner-up: InsideDNA.
• London 2015: Jukedeck, AI that composes royalty-free soundtracks. Runner-up: MAX.
• Europe 2014 (London): Crate.io, a distributed database queried with SQL. Runner-up: Disease Diagnostic Group.
• Europe 2013 (Berlin): Lock8, a smart bike lock with theft-detecting sensors. Runner-up: Asap54.
• Beijing 2011: OrderWithMe, group buying that lets small Western businesses split bulk orders from Chinese manufacturers. Runner-up: Anquanbao.

TechCrunch has also run regional Battlefields, for example in Africa, the Middle East, Latin America and Australia, as well as Hardware Battlefields at CES and in Shenzhen. Those winners are not included here.

Before Disrupt: TechCrunch40 and TechCrunch50

• TechCrunch40, 2007: Mint, a personal finance tracker, which took a $50,000 prize.
• TechCrunch50, 2008: Yammer, Twitter-style internal messaging for companies. Runners-up included Fitbit and Swype.
• TechCrunch50, 2009: RedBeacon, a marketplace for local home-service pros. Runners-up: Threadsy, AnyClip and CitySourced.

How Startup Battlefield works

The rules below are as of October 2026, taken from TechCrunch's 2026 application call and its guide to the Top 20.

The Battlefield 200

• Applying is free. Most selected companies are pre-Series A, some Series A startups are considered case by case, and a working MVP plus a product demo are required. Applications for 2026 closed on June 8 after an extension.
• Thousands apply and 200 are picked. The 2026 group was announced on August 20.
• All 200 get an exhibit table for the three days of Disrupt, team passes (four all-access passes, per the 2026 call), a pre-event virtual program, pitch coaching and an invitation to a private reception.

Top 20, the final and the judges

Twenty companies get six minutes each to pitch and demo live on the Disrupt Stage, followed by questions from panels of venture investors. Under the current format, five advance and pitch again on the closing day in front of a new panel; in 2023 TechCrunch picked six finalists. The 2024 final panel included Navin Chaddha (Mayfield), Ann Miura-Ko (Floodgate) and Hans Tung (Notable Capital).

The prize and the Disrupt Cup

The 2026 winner receives $100,000 in equity-free prize money and the Disrupt Cup, which recent TechCrunch posts also call the Startup Battlefield Cup. Where TechCrunch's winner posts for the US events from 2010 to 2017 name a figure, it is $50,000; it rose to $100,000 at Disrupt SF 2018, while Berlin stayed at $50,000 in 2018 and 2019. European editions paid in local currency: £30,000 in London in 2014 and 2015, £40,000 in 2016 and €42,000 in Berlin in 2017. Battlefield takes no equity, which sets it apart from accelerators such as Y Combinator; our guide to the YC Winter 2027 deadline covers that route.

Where past winners and finalists ended up

TechCrunch says that, as of 2026, more than 1,700 companies have gone through Battlefield, raising $32 billion and recording over 250 exits. These are the organizer's own figures. Some verified outcomes:

• Mint agreed to be bought by Intuit for about $170 million in 2009.
• Yammer was acquired by Microsoft for $1.2 billion in cash in 2012.
• Fitbit, a 2008 TechCrunch50 runner-up, became part of Google when its $2.1 billion acquisition closed in January 2021.
• Cloudflare, runner-up to Qwiki in 2010, went public in September 2019.
• Beam was acquired by Microsoft for its Xbox team in August 2016, three months after its win; terms were not disclosed.
• Getaround listed on the New York Stock Exchange through a SPAC merger in 2022 and shut its US operations in February 2025 to focus on Europe.
• Jukedeck: TechCrunch reported in 2019 that TikTok appeared to have acquired the company, based on staff profile changes rather than an announcement.
• Render raised a $50 million Series B led by Bessemer Venture Partners in 2023, bringing its total to $77.5 million at the time.
• Forethought raised $115 million before Zendesk agreed to acquire it in March 2026; terms were not disclosed.
• BioticsAI secured FDA clearance for its ultrasound software in January 2026.

For more on how startups like these raise money after a public launch, see our funding coverage.

When the 2026 winner will be announced

Disrupt 2026 runs October 13–15 at Moscone West in San Francisco. TechCrunch says the Top 20 will be revealed on day one, October 13, and its agenda spreads their pitches across October 13 and 14 in category sessions. The Startup Battlefield Final is listed for October 15 from 11:30 a.m. to 12:45 p.m. PT on the Disrupt Stage, with five finalists competing for $100,000 and the cup, and the winner announcement is scheduled for 4:15 p.m. PT the same day. Agenda times can shift. We will add the 2026 winner and runner-up to the list above once TechCrunch announces them. For the rest of the week's schedule and other startup conferences, follow our events section.

Frequently asked questions

Who won Startup Battlefield 2025?

Glīd, founded by Kevin Damoa, won Startup Battlefield at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025 in October 2025 and took home $100,000 and the cup. The runner-up was Nephrogen, a biotech company working on delivering gene-editing medicines to kidney cells.

Who won TechCrunch Startup Battlefield 2024?

Salva Health, co-founded by Valentina Agudelo, won at Disrupt 2024 with a portable breast cancer detection device. GeCKo Materials, which makes a gecko-inspired dry adhesive, was the runner-up.

How much money does the Startup Battlefield winner get?

As of October 2026, the winner receives $100,000 in equity-free prize money plus the Disrupt Cup. From 2010 to 2017, TechCrunch's winner posts for its US events that name a figure list $50,000.

Did Cloudflare win TechCrunch Disrupt?

No. Cloudflare was a runner-up at Disrupt San Francisco 2010, where Qwiki won the Disrupt Cup. Cloudflare later went public in 2019.

When is the Startup Battlefield 2026 final?

On October 15, 2026, the last day of TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 at Moscone West in San Francisco. TechCrunch's agenda lists the final from 11:30 a.m. to 12:45 p.m. PT and the winner announcement at 4:15 p.m. PT. The Top 20 are revealed on October 13.