Over the past three days, 20 startups have participated in TechCrunch Disrupt's highly competitive Startup Battlefield. These 20 companies were selected as the best in the Startup Battlefield 200 and competed for a chance to win the Startup Battlefield Cup and $100,000. After three days of passionate pitching, we achieved victory.
All startups participating in Startup Battlefield have been hand-picked to participate in the startup competition. All companies performed live demos in front of multiple groups of VCs and technology leaders serving as judges for a chance to win $100,000 and the coveted Disrupt Cup.
After several hours of deliberation, TechCrunch editors pored over the judges' notes and narrowed the shortlist to five companies: Gecko Materials, Luna, MabLab, Salva Health, and Stitch3D.
These startups advanced to the finale, where they demonstrated in front of the final judges, including Navin Chaddha (Mayfield), Chris Farmer (SignalFire), Dayna Grayson (Construct Capital), Ann Mirai-Ko (Floodgate), and Hans. Tong (notable capital).
We're ready to announce the winners of TechCrunch Startup Battlefield 2024. . .
Winner: Salva Health
Six years ago, Valentina Agudelo discovered the alarming disparity in breast cancer survival rates between Latin America and developed countries while doing research for a university startup competition. In her native Colombia and other parts of the continent, women die at higher rates from cancer later in life. detection. She found that although breast cancer is highly treatable when diagnosed early, many Latin American countries have large rural populations and lack access to mammography and other diagnostic tools. So Agudelo and two of her best friends decided to create Salva Health, a theoretical portable device that could detect breast cancer early.
Read more about Salva Health in another post.
Runner-up: Gecko Materials
It looks fake, or at least like a good illusion. Gecko Materials founder Capella Karst has a bottle of wine dangling from her little finger, but the only thing keeping it from shattering is her startup's super-strong dry adhesive. It is. market. But it's not a trick. This is the result of years of academic research that Kerst built on by inventing a way to mass-produce the adhesive. Inspired by the way real-life gecko feet grip surfaces, this adhesive only needs to be on one side, leaves no residue, and can be removed just as quickly as it was applied. , it's like the new Velcro. It runs at least 120,000 times and can remain connected for seconds, minutes, or even years, as Kerst said in a recent interview with TechCrunch.
For more information about Gecko materials, please see another post.
The two companies will follow in the footsteps of Startup Battlefield legends like Dropbox, Discord, Cloudflare, and Mint on the Disrupt stage. With more than 1,500 alumni participating in the program, Startup Battlefield Alumni has collectively raised more than $29 billion and achieved more than 200 successes.