For three days this week, 20 startups took the stage at Startup Battlefield during TechCrunch Disrupt, each vying for the coveted Startup Battlefield Cup and a $100,000 prize. These companies were hand-picked from the broader Startup Battlefield 200, representing the most promising early-stage ventures in tech. Each presented a live product demo to a panel of top investors, industry leaders, and tech veterans. After intense judging and hours of deliberation, TechCrunch editors reviewed the feedback and narrowed the field to five finalists: Charter Space, Glīd, MacroCycle, Nephrogen, and Unlisted Homes. The final five returned to the stage for a high-stakes pitch to a final panel of judges, including Aileen Lee, founder and managing partner of Cowboy Ventures, and Kevin Rose, founder of Digg. The winner of TechCrunch Startup Battlefield 2024 is Glīd — pronounced “Glide.” The company is tackling a major inefficiency in global freight logistics: the movement of shipping containers from port to rail. Glīd has developed a suite of hardware and software solutions to streamline this complex, multi-step process. Its flagship product, GliderM, is a hybrid-electric vehicle equipped with a rear-mounted hook that can directly lift and transport 20-foot shipping containers to rail yards—eliminating the need for forklifts and hostler trucks. By reducing reliance on traditional equipment and optimizing workflows, Glīd aims to cut costs, speed up transit times, and lower emissions in the supply chain. In second place is Nephrogen, a biotech startup leveraging artificial intelligence and advanced screening techniques to create a highly targeted delivery system for gene-editing therapies. The company’s breakthrough lies in its ability to deliver medicines directly to kidney cells with 100 times greater efficiency than current FDA-approved delivery vehicles. Founder Demetri Maxim, who lives with polycystic kidney disease, is personally committed to the mission and plans to participate in the upcoming clinical trial, underscoring the real-world urgency behind the technology. Both Glīd and Nephrogen join an elite group of past Startup Battlefield winners, including household names like Dropbox, Discord, Cloudflare, and Mint. With over 1,500 alumni and more than $29 billion in collective funding raised, the Startup Battlefield program continues to be a launchpad for transformative innovation.