Cerberus, WeGlobal AI and LOOQ Win Central Eurasia's Road to Startup Battlefield Final

The three winners emerged from a field of 22 finalists, chosen from a record 726 applications across 39 countries. The Road to TechCrunch Startup Battlefield is run by Silkroad Innovation Hub in partnership with TechCrunch, Freedom Holding, Astana Hub and IT Park Uzbekistan. Applications rose by nearly 50 percent over the 2025 debut, when 485 startups from 27 countries applied. National rounds narrowed the field, and the finalists pitched live at the regional final before 47 jurors from eight countries. AI-Dana, an AI judge, joined as an independent juror for the second year.

"Road to Battlefield 2026 had record applications and representation from more countries than ever," said Isabelle Johannessen, head of the Startup Battlefield program at TechCrunch. "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."

The applicant pool has moved almost entirely toward artificial intelligence. Of the 726 startups that applied this year, 84 percent were building AI products, and all three winners fit that pattern: an AI agent that hunts for security vulnerabilities, an AI platform for student mental health and career guidance, and AI-powered hardware that measures who actually looks at a billboard.

"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. "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 finalists were Suriy of Mongolia, TelAgri of Georgia, SeaDar of Azerbaijan, Kaptın Kaptın of Türkiye, Admyra of the United States, MVSxAI of Qatar and Soup of Kazakhstan.

First-place winner Cerberus, from Uzbekistan, 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."

The result gives Uzbekistan its first Road to TechCrunch Startup Battlefield champion. "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."

Second-place winner WeGlobal AI, from Kazakhstan, built its platform around a shortage of school psychologists in the country, giving schools AI tools to track student mental health and offer career guidance. Third-place LOOQ developed AI-powered hardware that measures who actually looks at a billboard.

Editor's Summary

Cerberus of Uzbekistan, WeGlobal AI of Kazakhstan and LOOQ won the Central Eurasia regional final of Road to TechCrunch Startup Battlefield 2026 and advance to the Startup Battlefield 200 at TechCrunch Disrupt in San Francisco on October 13-15. The competition drew a record 726 applications from 39 countries, up nearly 50 percent from 2025, with 84 percent of applicants building AI products. Cerberus, which automates vulnerability hunting for corporate systems, becomes the first winner from Uzbekistan and has joined the Alchemist Silkroad residency program.