At TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 in San Francisco, Intero Biosystems was announced as the winner of the Startup Battlefield competition, taking home the $100,000 grand prize. The Denver-based biotech startup was selected from 20 finalists who advanced from nearly 200 early-stage companies. Intero Biosystems, founded by Charlie Childs and Madeline Eiken and spun out of the University of Michigan, develops 1mm human intestinal organoids that replicate gut tissue. Their product GastroScreen allows pharmaceutical, biotech, food, and chemical companies to test drugs and compounds more accurately before advancing to human trials.

The final judging panel included prominent venture capitalists Alexa von Tobel, Chi-Hua Chien, Dayna Grayson, Karl Alomar, and Stacy Brown-Philpot. After live demos and intense deliberation, Intero Biosystems was chosen over other finalists such as Apate, Flox Intelligence, Industrial Next, and Satlyt. Apate, an Australian startup deploying AI agents to engage with scammers and gather fraud intelligence, was named the runner-up.

Intero Biosystems stands out by providing a more ethical and scalable alternative to animal testing for drug development. Their miniaturized human intestinal tissue organoids enable precise screening of intestinal responses to different compounds, potentially increasing drug safety and reducing costly clinical trial failures. This technology aims to transform preclinical drug testing by offering a closer approximation of how the human body reacts, improving early-stage research for pharmaceuticals and beyond.

The Startup Battlefield has a prestigious history of highlighting promising startups early in their journey, with alumni companies collectively raising over $30 billion and producing more than 200 exits. Intero Biosystems’ victory at Disrupt 2026 places it among notable past winners like Trello, Discord, Cloudflare, and Mint, signaling strong investor confidence and market potential for their cutting-edge biotech innovation.