Here are the 5 Startup Battlefield finalists at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025

After two days full of live demos and pitches, it’s time to announce this year’s five finalists Startup battlefield.

These finalists were selected from an initial pool of thousands of applicants, TechCrunch’s editorial team narrowed the field to 200 companies that all joined us here at Disrupt, competing on the Top 20 Disrupt stage.

With feedback from our expert judges, we’ve now selected our finalists, who will take the stage once again on Wednesday at 11:30am PT to compete for the grand prize of $100,000 in equity-free funding, as well as temporary custody of the Startup Battlefield Cup. You can watch the finals livestream on the TechCrunch website — or, if you’re attending the conference, on the Disrupt stage.

Without further ado, here are the finalists for the 2025 TechCrunch Startup Battlefield:

Charter space

Charter Space created a dev tool for aerospace engineers, but its real mission Serving as a fintech company for space. The software captures manufacturing and testing data directly from the source, and this dataset then feeds an underwriting interface that connects directly to the largest insurance carriers in the market. The goal is faster, cheaper, and more reliable risk assessment for spacecraft insurance, and ultimately for new types of credit and nondilutive funding for space companies looking outside of venture capital and public markets.

smooth

Glīd (pronounced “glide”) aims to streamline complex, multistep processes Moving a container from a ship to a freight train. The company has developed several hardware and software products to speed up and reduce the cost of getting shipping containers to the railhead and eventually to their destination. Its first product is the GliderM, a hybrid-electric vehicle with a hook on the back that can lift and move 20-foot containers directly on rails without the need for hostler truck forklifts.

macrocycle

Macrocycle created a shortcut Recycled plastic promises to be as cheap as virgin material. The startup has developed a way to extract desirable synthetic fibers from waste textiles, leaving everything else behind. Unlike most chemical recyclers, Macrocycle’s process is different because it doesn’t break down the polymers. Instead, it pulls the polymer chains back on themselves, forcing them into rings called macrocycles, which remain behind after the contaminants are washed away.

Nephrogen

Nephrogen a Biotech startups that use AI and advanced screening Developing a specialized delivery system to safely get gene-editing drugs to the right cells in the kidney. Founder Demetri Maxim says that after three years of development, Nephrogen has succeeded in creating a delivery system that is 100 times more efficient at transporting drugs to the kidney than “vehicles” currently approved by the FDA. And given the challenges she faces living with polycystic kidney disease, she plans to participate in clinical studies herself.

Unlisted house

Unlisted Homes is similar to Zillow Homes that are not yet on the market. Using public records of 21 million homes, it creates “profiles” for each property listed, providing the same information you’d find on any other real estate listing site. The company does not plan to facilitate real estate transactions through the platform, as the resources for those transactions already exist. Instead, unlisted individual zip codes will sell sponsorships to real estate agents, who will be listed as local experts on every home in that zip code.