Top 14 agtech and foodtech startups from Disrupt Startup Battlefield

Every year, TechCrunch’s Startup Battlefield pitch competition attracts thousands of applicants. We reduce these applications to the top 200 contendersand among them, the top 20 compete on the big stage for the Startup Battlefield Cup and a $100,000 cash prize. But the remaining 180 startups also blew us away in their respective categories and in their own pitch competition.

Here’s the full list of agtech and food tech startups selected for Battlefield 200, along with a note explaining why they landed in the competition.

ÄIO

What it does: Äio has developed a method produce edible fat from agricultural waste.

Why it’s notable: Äio has developed a yeast strain that transforms abundant agricultural waste such as sawdust into a fat suitable for food and cosmetics.

Aquawise

What it does: Aquawise provides AI-based water quality monitoring for shrimp and fish farms using satellite imagery.

Why it’s notable: The startup eliminates the need for expensive sensors while providing real-time insights and predictive analytics.

Key

What it does: Clave offers AI agents that help fast food franchises better interact with their data.

Why it’s notable: Clave analyzes historical and real-time store data to help franchise restaurants quickly develop promotions that increase sales.

CredoSense

What it does: CredoSense offers a portable AI-powered plant diagnostic system that measures crop health.

Why it’s notable: Crop health diagnostics are confined to silos, but CredoSense manages a wide range of crop diagnostic technologies and data in one small, low-power device.

Strong Biotechnology

What it does: Forte Biotech has created patented technology to test for diseases in shrimp on fish farms.

Why it’s notable: Developed in partnership with the National University of Singapore (NUS), the technology helps shrimp farmers quickly diagnose common diseases without the need to call in experts.

Genesis

What it does: Genesis offers a business intelligence platform for land data that helps agricultural businesses make better regenerative decisions about their land assets and crops.

Why it’s notable: Genesis claims to have collected one of the most comprehensive commodity databases that complements soil analysis to increase yields through regenerative practices.

Green solutions

What it does: Greeny Solutions offers AI-based software and IoT tools for indoor commercial agriculture.

Why it’s notable: Greeny’s technology promises to automate nutrient dosing, climate control and disease monitoring to increase yields.

Instacrops

What it does: Instacrops uses AI, IoT sensors and satellite imagery to monitor and optimize agricultural fields.

Why it’s notable: Y Combinator graduate Instacrops uses hardware sensors and AI agents to help farms respond to crop health indications (irrigation, fertilization, etc.) in real time, increasing yields and reducing water consumption.

Kadeya

What it does: Kadeya operates office beverage dispensers that use reusable bottles, which can be returned and then cleaned and reused.

Why it’s notable: This startup eliminates single-use plastic bottles (or cans) in the workplace, while supplying and cleaning the bottle, eliminating the need for businesses to purchase drinks in plastic bottles.

MUI-Robotics

What it does: MUI-Robotics develops AI odor detection for robots.

Why it’s notable: MUI-Robotics digitizes odors, which not only paves the way for multisensory robotics, but also presents commercial applications of scent/odor detection in food, chemical, medical and environmental applications.

Shin Starr Robotics

What it does: Shin Starr Robotics builds robots that automate meal preparation for meal delivery.

Why it’s notable: Autonomous kitchens prepare meals in a truckdriven by a human, as it heads to a delivery destination. The idea is to deliver restaurant-quality Korean barbecue before arrival.

Agriculture Tensorfield

What it does: Tensorfield uses AI-powered robotics to identify and kill weeds without pesticides in densely populated beds like carrots, spinach and lettuce without disturbing the crop or its soil.

Why it’s notable: It can identify weeds as soon as they germinate and injects them with superheated vegetable oil instead of herbicides.

Unibaio

What it does: Unibaio develops biodegradable polymers that deliver agrochemicals more efficiently.

Why it’s notable: The microparticles are a natural polymer derived from shrimp waste and are suitable for over 35 crops.

Verley

What it does: Verley manufactures bioidentical dairy proteins using precision fermentation technology.

Why it’s notable: Verley helps maintain the supply of protein dairy products while minimizing the environmental impact of dairy farming.