Every year, TechCrunch’s Startup Battlefield competition attracts thousands of applicants. We whittle those apps down to the top 200 contenders, and of those, the top 20 compete on the big stage for the Startup Battlefield Cup and a $100,000 cash prize. But the rest of the 180 startups also blew us away, in their respective categories and in their own competition.
Here’s the full list of agtech and food Startup Battlefield 200 selectees, along with a note on why they landed in the competition.
ÄIO
What it does: Äio has developed a method of producing edible fat from agricultural waste.
Why it’s notable: Äio has developed a yeast strain that converts abundant agricultural waste such as sawdust into fat suitable for food and cosmetics.
Aquawise
What it does: Aquawise provides artificial intelligence water quality monitoring for shrimp and fish farms using satellite imagery.
Why it’s notable: The startup eliminates the need for expensive sensors while offering real-time information and predictive analytics.
Clave
What it does: Clave offers AI agents that help fast food restaurant franchises better interact with their data.
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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 artificial intelligence plant diagnostic system that measures crop health.
Why it’s notable: Crop health diagnostics are often siloed, but CredoSense handles a wide range of crop diagnostic technology and data in a small, low-power device.
Forte Biotech
What it does: Forte Biotech has created a patented technology to control diseases among shrimp in fish farms.
Why it’s notable: Developed in collaboration with the National University of Singapore (NUS), this technology helps shrimp farmers quickly diagnose common diseases without having to hire expert help.
Genesis
What it does: Genesis offers a ground data business intelligence platform that helps agricultural businesses make better, regenerative decisions about their land assets and crops.
Why it’s notable: Genesis says it has assembled one of the most comprehensive raw material databases that augments soil analysis to increase yields through regeneration practices.
Greeny Solutions
What it does: Greeny Solutions offers artificial intelligence software and IoT tools for commercial indoor farming.
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 farms.
Why it’s notable: Y Combinator grad Instacrops uses hardware sensors and AI agents to help farms respond to cues about crop health — irrigation, fertilization, etc. — in real time, boosting yields and reducing water use.
Candeja
What it does: Kadeya operates beverage stations for offices 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 providing and cleaning the bottle, eliminating the need for companies to purchase beverages in plastic bottles in the first place.
MUI-Robotics
What it does: MUI-Robotics develops AI scent detection for robots.
Why it’s notable: MUI-Robotics digitizes smell, which not only paves the way for multisensory robotics, but also has commercial applications for aroma/odor detection in food, chemical, medical and environmental applications.
Shin Starr Robotics
What it does: Shin Starr Robotics makes robots that automate food preparation for meal delivery.
Why it’s notable: Autonomous kitchens cook meals in a truck, driven by a human, while traveling to a delivery destination. The idea is to deliver restaurant-quality Korean BBQ upon arrival.
Tensorfield Agriculture
What it does: Tensorfield uses AI-powered robotics to identify and kill weeds without pesticides in densely packed crops such as carrots, spinach and lettuce without disturbing the crop or soil.
Why it’s notable: It can identify weeds when they are just sprouting and inject 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 more than 35 cultures.
Verley
What it does: Verley manufactures bioidentical dairy proteins using precision fermentation technology.
Why it’s notable: Verley helps maintain the supply of dairy protein products while minimizing the environmental impact of dairy farming.
