Cerberus, WeGlobal AI, and LOOQ took the top three spots at the regional final of Road to TechCrunch Startup Battlefield 2026 and will represent Central Eurasia in Startup Battlefield 200 at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 in San Francisco on October 13-15, before 10,000+ tech leaders attending. The three emerged from a field of 22 finalists, chosen from a record 726 applications across 39 countries. Meet these winners at Disrupt by registering for your ticket here.
The Road to TechCrunch Startup Battlefield — run by Silkroad Innovation Hub in partnership with TechCrunch, Freedom Holding, Astana Hub, and IT Park Uzbekistan — drew nearly 50% more applications than its 2025 debut, when 485 startups from 27 countries applied. National rounds narrowed the field to 22 finalists, who pitched live at the Regional Final before 47 jurors from eight countries. AI-Dana, an AI judge, joined them as an independent juror for the second year.
“Road to Battlefield 2026 had record applications and representation from more countries than ever. The companies pitching across health tech, education, productivity, enterprise, and cyber were cutting-edge and impressive. These founders are getting global visibility at TechCrunch Disrupt, and that sends a message to the next generation: You can build locally and scale globally. That visibility is a catalyst. Road to Battlefield proves this ecosystem is thriving and that there’s a real pathway for founders here to compete on a world stage,” said Isabelle Johannessen, head of the Startup Battlefield program at TechCrunch.
It’s also a field that has gone almost entirely AI — of the 726 startups that applied this year, 84% were building AI products. All three winners fit that mold: An AI agent that hunts for security vulnerabilities (Cerberus); an AI platform for student mental health and career guidance (WeGlobal AI); and AI-powered hardware that measures who actually looks at a billboard (LOOQ).
“We had a very strong applicant pool this year, which made the final selection genuinely difficult,” said Asset Abdualiyev, founder and CEO of Silkroad Innovation Hub. “From the beginning, the idea behind Road to Battlefield has been to give talented founders a platform to be seen, heard, and connected to opportunities beyond the region. Throughout the competition, we invited experienced VCs and tech leaders from different countries, giving founders the opportunity to pitch their companies, receive feedback, and build relationships with the global startup community. The strongest teams made it through to the final, and we are proud to have TechCrunch as a partner in creating this global pathway for founders from Central Eurasia.”
The rest of the top 10 Road to Battlefield finalists included Suriy (Mongolia), TelAgri (Georgia), SeaDar (Azerbaijan), Kaptın Kaptın (Türkiye), Admyra (United States), MVSxAI (Qatar), and Soup (Kazakhstan).
The Winners
Cerberus (Uzbekistan)
First-place winner Cerberus is an AI-powered cybersecurity startup that automatically hunts for vulnerabilities in corporate IT systems. The company is addressing a problem it sees in the current generation of AI-driven security tools: Many rely heavily on general-purpose language models that can hallucinate, with potentially serious consequences when given access to corporate systems. Cerberus has already gone through 500 Global Eurasia and has been accepted into the Alchemist Silkroad — Silicon Valley Residency program.
“We were simply glad to be part of Road to Battlefield. Competing against 726 applications from 39 countries is valuable in itself, whatever the outcome,” said Aziz Akhmedkhodjaev, founder and CEO of Cerberus. “What made our pitch unique is that we’re solving a problem the market is already feeling. Everyone is writing code with AI now, vulnerabilities are appearing faster than teams can find them, and there’s no established way to let an AI agent test real infrastructure safely. We believe the judges recognized that, and we’ll do our best, treating it as a serious responsibility. We don’t intend to let our region down.”
The win also gives Uzbekistan its first Road to TechCrunch Startup Battlefield champion, as the country looks to bring more of its emerging technology companies onto the international stage.
“Uzbekistan’s startup ecosystem has changed significantly in the past few years,” said Sherzod Shermatov, Minister of Digital Technology of Uzbekistan. “We are seeing more founders building sophisticated technology products and thinking about international markets from the beginning. Cerberus taking first place and advancing to TechCrunch Startup Battlefield 200 is a strong example of that progress, and an important opportunity to show the global technology community what founders from Uzbekistan can build.”
WeGlobal AI (Kazakhstan)
Second-place winner WeGlobal AI built its platform around a shortage of school psychologists in Kazakhstan, giving schools AI tools to track student mental health and offer career guidance at a scale no hiring push could match.
“Road to Startup Battlefield was an incredible experience for our team,” said Bolat Ashim, co-founder and CEO of WeGlobal AI. “Going through the National and Regional rounds gave us the opportunity to challenge our thinking, sharpen our story, and meet some amazing founders along the way. Finishing second and earning the opportunity to join TechCrunch Startup Battlefield 200 in San Francisco is a huge milestone for us. We’re excited to represent Kazakhstan on a global stage and introduce what we’re building at WeGlobal AI to the wider tech community.”
For Kazakhstan, WeGlobal AI’s result also comes as the country puts AI at the center of its digital development agenda and looks to connect more of its technology companies with international markets.
“AI is creating an opportunity for countries like Kazakhstan to compete globally in ways that were not possible a decade ago,” said Zhaslan Madiyev, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Development of Kazakhstan. “Our task is to make sure talented founders have the infrastructure, skills, and international connections to take advantage of that opportunity. Road to Battlefield is one of those bridges, connecting entrepreneurs from Kazakhstan and across Central Eurasia directly with the global technology ecosystem.”
LOOQ (Japan)
Third-place winner LOOQ, founded by Ayan Sakenov and Yudai Ishida, is building camera-based hardware and an “attention API” to measure how many people actually see billboards and other out-of-home advertisements. The technology is designed to give advertisers a clearer measure of real-world attention to outdoor advertising.
“LOOQ started with a simple but ambitious idea: If we can measure every click online, why can’t we measure what happens in the physical world? Since then, we’ve taken that idea from a prototype to real-world deployments, customers, and now third place at Road to Battlefield. Earning our way to San Francisco is a huge milestone, but for us, it’s really just the beginning. Startup life is basically building, testing, learning, and occasionally sleeping — and now we’re excited to bring LOOQ to the U.S. and show what Google Analytics for the physical world can become,” said Ayan Sakenov, founder and CEO.
The three winners will also share a $100,000 investment pool, funded jointly by Astana Hub Ventures, IT Park Ventures, and Silkroad Innovation Hub. Cerberus will receive a $50,000 investment, WeGlobal AI $30,000, and LOOQ $20,000, invested on standard market terms in exchange for equity.
OpenAI awarded $280,000 in API credits across the 22 finalists. The three winners received $100,000 in total, matching the investment prize structure, while each of the other 19 finalists received $10,000 in API credits.
“Founders across Central Eurasia showed real ambition, a clear focus on solving real problems, and strong technical skill in building with AI,” said Thomas Jeng, Head of Startups APAC at OpenAI. “It’s great to see competitions like this connecting them with the global networks they need to turn their ideas into products that reach people far beyond the region.”
For the three winners, the regional final marks the end of Road to TechCrunch Startup Battlefield 2026, but the beginning of a much bigger competition in San Francisco.
Check out the broadcast of the final round:
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