After two days filled with live demos and pitches, it’s time to announce the five finalists for this year’s Startup Battlefield.
These finalists were initially selected from thousands of applicants, and TechCrunch’s editorial team narrowed the field to 200 companies that participated here at Disrupt, with the top 20 competing on the Disrupt stage.
The finalists were selected based on feedback from expert judges. Finalists will take the stage once again on Wednesday at 11:30 a.m. Pacific Time to compete for the grand prize of $100,000 in equity-free funding and temporary custody of the Startup Battlefield Cup. You can watch the finals livestream on the TechCrunch website. If you’re attending the conference, you can watch it on the Disrupt Stage.
Without further ado, here are the finalists for the 2025 TechCrunch Startup Battlefield.
Private space
Charter Space has built development tools for aerospace engineers, but its real mission is to function as a fintech company for space. The software captures manufacturing and test data directly from the source, and this dataset is fed into an underwriting interface that works directly with the largest insurance companies in the market. The goal is to make risk assessments for spacecraft insurance faster, cheaper, and more reliable, ultimately empowering new forms of credit and non-dilutive financing for space companies looking outside venture capital and public markets.
Greed
Glid (pronounced “glide”) aims to streamline the complex, multi-step process of moving containers from ships to freight trains. The company has developed several hardware and software products to speed up and reduce the cost of transporting shipping containers to the railhead and ultimately to their destination. Its first product is the GliderM, a hybrid electric vehicle with a rear hook that can lift and move 20-foot containers directly onto the rails without the need for a forklift on a Hostler truck.
macro cycle
MacroCycle has developed a shortcut of sorts that promises to make recycled plastic as cheap as virgin material. The startup has devised a way to extract desirable synthetic fibers from waste textiles, leaving everything else behind. Unlike most chemical recycling, MacroCycle’s process is different because it does not break down the polymer. Instead, the polymer chains are looped back into place, forming a ring called a macrocycle. Macrocyclic rings remain after pollutants are washed away.
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nephrogen
Nephrogen is a biotech startup that uses AI and advanced screening to develop specialized delivery systems to safely administer gene-editing drugs to precise cells in the kidney. Founder Demetri Maxim said that after three years of development, Nephrogen has succeeded in creating a delivery mechanism that transports drugs to the kidneys 100 times more efficiently than currently FDA-approved “vehicles.” And given the challenges he faces in living with polycystic kidney disease, he plans to participate in clinical research himself.
Private residence
Unlisted Homes is similar to Zillow, but for homes that aren’t yet on the market. Unlisted used public records for 21 million homes to create a “profile” for each property, providing the same type of information found on other real estate listing sites. The company does not intend to facilitate real estate transactions through its platform, as the resources for real estate transactions already exist. Instead, Unlisted sells sponsorships to real estate agents based on individual zip codes, and real estate agents are listed as local experts for all homes within that zip code.
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