For three days this week in San Francisco, 20 eager startups participated in the Startup Battlefield at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026. The top 20 were chosen to represent the best of the Startup Battlefield 200, and they competed for a chance to take home the Startup Battlefield Cup and $100,000. With that intense pitching now complete, we have a winner. The final five made their way to the finale to demo in front of our final panel of judges: Alexa von Tobel of Inspired Capital, Chi-Hua Chien of Goodwater Capital, Dayna Grayson of Construct Capital, Karl Alomar of M13, and Stacy Brown-Philpot of Cherryrock Capital. Intero Biosystems is a Denver-based startup founded by Charlie Childs and Madeline Eiken that spun out of the University of Michigan. It's developing 1mm human intestinal 'organoids,' lab-grown tissue that mimics the gut, offering another way to study how drugs and other compounds might affect the human body before they are tested in people. The startup sells its flagship...
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