The winner of the Startup Battlefield competition at Disrupt 2025 is: Glīd

For three days this week, 20 Startup Battlefield startups participated in TechCrunch Disrupt 2025. Each was selected to represent the best in the Startup Battlefield 200 and competed for a chance to take home the Startup Battlefield Cup and $100,000. After all this intense promotion, we have a winner.

These startups were carefully selected to compete in Startup Battlefield, and all of them pitched live in front of the venture capitalists and technology leaders who judged the competition.

After hours of deliberation, TechCrunch editors reviewed the judges’ feedback and narrowed the list to five finalists: Charter Space, Glīd, MacroCycle, Nephrogen, and Unlisted Homes.

The five finalists made their way to the end to pitch in front of our final panel of judges, which included Aileen Lee, founder and managing partner of Cowboy Ventures, and Digg founder Kevin Rose.

We are now ready to announce that the winner of TechCrunch Startup Battlefield 2024 is:

Winner: Ice

Glīd (pronounced “Glide”) aims to simplify the complex, multi-step process involved in moving a container from a ship to a freight train. The company, founded by Kevin Damoa (pictured), has developed several hardware and software products to speed up and reduce the cost of getting shipping containers to the railhead and ultimately to their destination. Its first product is the GliderM, a hybrid electric vehicle with a hook on the back that can pick up and move 20-foot containers directly to the rail without the need for host truck forklifts.

Read more about Glīd in our separate post.

Runner-up: Nephrogen

Nephrogen is a biotechnology startup that uses artificial intelligence and advanced screening to develop a specialized delivery system to safely deliver gene editing drugs to specific cells in the kidney. After three years of development, Nephrogen has created a delivery mechanism that is 100 times more efficient at transporting the drug to the kidneys than currently FDA-approved “compounds,” says founder Dmitry Maxim. He plans to participate in the clinical study himself, given the challenges he faces living with polycystic kidney disease.

Read more about Nephrogen in our separate post.

These two companies follow 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.