Cellino is using AI and machine learning to scale production of stem cell therapies

Cellino, a company developing a platform to automate stem cell production, presented today at TechCrunch Disrupt 2021 to detail how its system, which combines A.I. technology, machine learning, hardware, software — and yes, lasers! — could eventually democratize access to cell therapies. It aims to bring down costs associated with the manufacturing of human cells, […]

Koa is helping African consumers make better money moves

While Delila Kidanu grew up in Nairobi, Kenya, mobile money platform M-Pesa was the go-to fintech platform for her and most Kenyans. The Safaricom-owned product provides basic access to financial services like sending and receiving money and purchasing airtime. Yet, some Kenyans still lack other digital financial services from savings to investments. Last year, people […]

Adventr uses patented voice-control tech to allow anyone to create interactive videos

We’ve all been there — you’re watching a horror movie, and you know that the main character definitely shouldn’t go into that creepy house, but no matter how much you yell at your TV, you can’t change his fate. But what if you told the guy on screen to steer clear of the house, and […]

RoboDeck is a robot that keeps your house’s deck looking good

If your house has a wooden deck, keeping it in good shape is costly and time consuming. If you don’t keep up with the regular maintenance, it becomes even more costly and time consuming to fix — or, eventually, it all just starts to rot and fall apart. We’ve got robots that can clean our […]

Animal Alternative makes a platform play in the growing market of cultured meat

Traditional meat production is about as far from a sustainable process as we’ve got, but our chances of getting everyone to give up “real” meat are lean. Animal Alternative is one of several companies looking to make meat indistinguishable from the animal-based kind using bioreactors and cultured cells, and it aims to empower local producers […]

EyeGage is building a database of eye scans for drug testing

LaVonda Brown developed an interest in eye-tracking during her time at Georgia Tech. The fascination with all the information that can be derived by scanning the so-called “windows to the soul” formed the foundation of EyeGage, one of the 20 companies competing at this year’s Disrupt Startup Battlefield. The startup’s entry into the TechCrunch competition […]

Verdi aims to give farmers granular control over crop irrigation

Verdi, which launched today at TechCrunch’s Startup Battlefield, refers to its smart valve clusters as “swarms.” The term denotes the kind of high-density implementation the company is looking to roll out in farms across North America. Retrofitted with existing irrigation technology, the aim of its system is to give farmers more control over the irrigation […]

Happaning aims to be a ‘Google Street View’ for video

A new startup called Happaning wants to make video a more immersive experience by allowing people to watch the same event from multiple perspectives. Or, as co-founder and CEO Andrew Eniwumide likes to say, it’s “Google Street View, but with video.” The company believes its unique technology offering these multi-vantage-point videos could ultimately do more […]

Announcing the Startup Battlefield companies pitching at TechCrunch Disrupt 2021

Today, TechCrunch is excited to announce the 20 startups pitching on stage in this year’s Startup Battlefield. Selected from the most competitive batch in TC history, selected founders from across the globe will pitch on the virtual stage at TechCrunch Disrupt 2021. Startups will be competing for $100,000 in equity-free prize money and the attention […]