Key facts
- Intero Biosystems won the Startup Battlefield Cup and $100,000.
- Apate.ai uses AI agents to bait and learn from scammers.
- Flox Intelligence uses AI to deter wildlife with species-appropriate sounds.
- Industrial Next builds AI-driven robotic stations for rapid production line retooling.
- Satlyt creates software for satellites to share computing tasks in space.
Intero Biosystems was named the winner of the TechCrunch Startup Battlefield 2026 competition held in San Francisco. The Denver-based startup, which spun out of the University of Michigan, develops human intestinal organoids for drug testing and sells its flagship product, GastroScreen, to pharmaceutical, biotech, food, and chemical companies. The competition featured 20 startups, with five finalists presenting to a panel of venture capital judges. Apate, an Australian startup focused on using AI agents to bait fraudsters, was named the runner-up. The Startup Battlefield offers a $100,000 equity-free prize to the winner.