And the winner of Startup Battlefield at Disrupt 2026 is: Intero Biosystems — SkimNews
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- Intero Biosystems won the Startup Battlefield at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 in San Francisco, beating four other finalists — Apate, Flox Intelligence, Industrial Next, and Satlyt — selected from 20 startups that presented live demos over three days.
- Intero Biosystems, founded by Charlie Childs and Madeline Eiken, develops 1mm human intestinal "organoids" sold as its flagship product GastroScreen to pharmaceutical, biotech, food, and chemical companies for preclinical drug and compound testing.
- Apate, founded by Dali Kaafar out of Macquarie University research, was named runner-up for deploying thousands of AI agents that pose as scam victims — answering scam calls, responding to phishing messages, and joining social media groups to bait fraudsters.
- The final judging panel consisted of Alexa von Tobel (Inspired Capital), Chi-Hua Chien (Goodwater Capital), Dayna Grayson (Construct Capital), Karl Alomar (M13), and Stacy Brown-Philpot (Cherryrock Capital).
- The winner received the Startup Battlefield Cup and a $100,000 prize, joining alumni ranks that include Trello, Discord, Cloudflare, and Mint.
- Startup Battlefield alumni number more than 1,700 and have collectively raised over $30 billion with more than 200 successful exits, per TechCrunch.
Why it matters: The $100,000 prize and Battlefield validation land Intero Biosystems alongside alumni like Discord and Cloudflare — a pipeline that has produced 200+ exits and $30B+ in collective funding. For pharma and biotech buyers, the win spotlights organoid-based preclinical testing as a credible alternative to animal models before human trials.
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