And the winner of Startup Battlefield at Disrupt 2026 is: Intero Biosystems
Intero Biosystems beat out 199 other Startup Battlefield companies to take home the $100,000 grand prize at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026.
On the final day of TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 in San Francisco, the Startup Battlefield competition came to a close with Intero Biosystems declaring victory. This Denver-based startup, founded by Charlie Childs and Madeline Eiken, took top honors after competing against five other finalists - Apate, Flox Intelligence, Industrial Next, and Satlyt.
The Startup Battlefield is an annual event at Disrupt, where 20 selected startups from the larger Startup Battlefield 200 pitch their innovative ideas to a panel of venture capitalists and tech leaders. Intero Biosystems' winning product, GastroScreen, is a lab-grown human intestinal tissue, or "organoid," that mimics the gut and allows pharmaceutical and biotech companies to test the potential effects of drugs and other compounds on the human body before moving to human trials.
The startup's innovative approach to drug testing has earned it the distinction of being TechCrunch Startup Battlefield 2026's champion.
Written by urgent.news from TechCrunch's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
This story
This is one outlet's version. Read the fullest account.
