Every year, TechCrunch’s Startup Battlefield pitch contest draws thousands of applicants. We whittle those applications down to the top 200 contenders, and of them, the top 20 compete on the big stage to become the winner, taking home the Startup Battlefield Cup and a cash prize of $100,000. But the remaining 180 startups all blew us away as well in their respective categories and compete in their own pitch competition.
Here is the full list of the fintech, real estate, and proptech Startup Battlefield 200 selectees, along with a note on why they landed in the competition.
Fintech
Clox AI
What it does: Uses AI to detect fraud (such as tampering and forgery) in digital documents.
Why it’s noteworthy: Helps companies, especially in finance and lending, to automate the entire document verification process faster.
Cypher
What it does: Provides cloud-based fractional CFO and accounting services for startups and high-growth tech companies.
Why it’s noteworthy: Unlike generalist accounting firms, Cypher focuses on financial metrics that matter to startups and investors, offering services like cap table management and investor reporting.
Identifee
What it does: An AI-powered platform built for commercial banks and credit unions that consolidates the functionality of multiple systems (including CRM, business intelligence, and sales enablement).
Techcrunch event
San Francisco
|
October 13-15, 2026
Why it’s noteworthy: Replaces the need for community banks to purchase and integrate multiple expensive, generalist tools like Salesforce, Tableau, and Seismic.
Kruncher
What it does: Uses AI to automate the entire VC and private equity investment process, from deal screening and due diligence to portfolio monitoring and reporting.
Why it’s noteworthy: The AI analyst allows investment firms to scale their operations and decision-making capacity.
Lootlock
What it does: Helps parents manage and control their kids’ spending on video games with prepaid debit cards linked to funds earned to kids’ chore performance.
Why it’s noteworthy: Teaches kids responsibility by allowing them to earn digital allowance through chores.
Muse
What it does: AI-powered tax platform that provides automated, personalized tax strategies and financial insights to banks, payroll, and other financial institutions.
Why it’s noteworthy: The company claims its AI can solve the complex problem of tax optimization and compliance much faster than humans.
ti¢ker
What it does: An AI-powered investment research and trading platform that provides individual and active traders with real-time stock forecasts, price predictions, and automated trading signals.
Why it’s noteworthy: Claims to make institutional-quality AI tools and other sophisticated predictive analytics accessible to individual, non-professional traders.
Real estate and proptech
Genia
What it does: Uses AI to transform architectural drawings into building code-compliant, physics-validated structural designs.
Why it’s noteworthy: Claims to slash the time it takes to calculate and draft structural design by 10x.
Investwise
What it does: An AI-driven optimization platform that helps data center operators maximize hardware performance and cooling efficiency.
Why it’s noteworthy: Ensures that the infrastructure powering the future is both as efficient and as profitable as possible.
Smart Bricks
What it does: Dubai-based AI-powered real estate investment platform that analyzes residential and commercial properties in the UAE and the United States to help individual investors discover high-return investments.
Why it’s noteworthy: Expedites real estate investment process by analyzing millions of data points daily and surfacing only the most valuable properties to clients.
Soundspace Technology
What it does: Technology-enabled music infrastructure startup that provides professional and affordable creative spaces for the “creative middle class.”
Why it’s noteworthy: Instead of traditional hourly rentals, its recurring credit system makes professional studio time as accessible as a gym membership.
Surfaice
What it does: An AI copilot designed for construction development that allows companies to more quickly automate the design, documentation, and cost-projection of repeatable projects.
Why it’s noteworthy: Eliminates the manual bottlenecks of construction development by automating design and documentation, allowing companies to scale high-volume infrastructure projects faster.
Unlisted Homes
What it does: An AI-powered “pre-market” platform that creates searchable profiles for every home in the U.S., allowing buyers to join waitlists for properties not currently for sale.
Why it’s noteworthy: Unlike Zillow’s “Buy Now” feature, Unlisted Homes includes about 21 million homes tracked via public records, allowing buyers to express interest in specific properties years before they hit the market.
Zown
What it does: An AI-powered real estate brokerage that promises to return up to 1.5% of the broker’s commission (up to $25,000) back to buyers.
Why it’s noteworthy: Unlike most competitors, Zown provides commission rebates before closing, helping first-time buyers satisfy their down payment requirements and increase their purchasing power.