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Over the past three days, 20 startups participated in TechCrunch Disrupt’s incredibly competitive Startup Battlefield competition. These 20 companies were named Startup Battlefield 200 Top Companies and competed for a chance to take home the Startup Battlefield Cup and $100,000. After three days of intense promotion, we have a winner.
The startups participating in Startup Battlefield have been carefully selected to participate in our startup competition. All companies pitched live in front of multiple groups of venture capitalists and technology leaders serving as judges for a chance to win $100,000 and the coveted Disrupt Cup.
After hours of deliberation, TechCrunch editors reviewed the judges’ feedback and narrowed the list to five finalists: Gecko Materials, Luna, MabLab, Salva Health, and Stitch3D.
These startups made their way to the final stage to pitch in front of our final judging panel, which included Naveen Chadha (Mayfield), Chris Farmer (Signal Fire), Dayna Grayson (Construct Capital), Anne Miura Ko (Floodgate), and Hans. Tong (prominent capital).
We are now ready to announce that the winner of TechCrunch Startup Battlefield 2024 is . . .
Winner: Salva Health
Six years ago, while researching a college entrepreneurship competition, Valentina Agudelo identified a troubling gap in breast cancer survival rates between Latin America and the developed world, with women in her native Colombia and the rest of the continent dying at higher rates from delayed pregnancies. a statement. She recognized that breast cancer is highly treatable when diagnosed early, yet many Latin American countries have large rural populations who lack access to mammograms and other diagnostic tools. So Agudelo and her two best friends decided to create this project Validity in advancea theoretical portable device that would detect breast cancer early.
Read more about Salva Health in our separate post.
Runner-up: Gecko Materials
It looks fake, or at least like a good illusion: there it is Gecko materials Founder Capella Kirst has an entire bottle of wine dangling from her pinky finger, and the only thing keeping it from shattering into pieces is the super-strong dry adhesive her startup has brought to market. But it’s not a trick. It is the result of years of academic research that Kirst built upon by inventing a way to manufacture the adhesive in large quantities. Inspired by the way real-life gecko feet grip surfaces, the adhesive is like new Velcro — except it only needs one side, leaves no residue, and comes off as quickly as it’s attached. They can do this at least 120,000 times, and as Kirst pointed out in a recent interview with TechCrunch, they can stay connected for seconds, minutes, or even years.
Read more about gecko materials in our separate post.
These two companies are following in the footsteps of Startup Battlefield legends like Dropbox, Discord, Cloudflare, and Mint on the Disrupt stage. With over 1,500 alumni participating in the program, Startup Battlefield alumni have raised over $29 billion in funding with over 200 successful exits.
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