TechCrunch’s Startup Battlefield remains one of the hardest pitch stages to get onto. Thousands of startups apply. Just 200 make the cut for the Startup Battlefield 200, and from there only 20 founders get the lights, cameras and $100,000 prize shot on the main stage.
But the other 180 companies aren’t consolation prizes. They’re a snapshot of where early-stage innovation is actually heading.
In the health and wellness track, 33 startups earned spots in the Battlefield 200, covering everything from noninvasive diagnostics and hospital automation to menopause care, brain–computer interfaces and smart clothing for athletes.
Here’s a quick tour of the cohort, based on TechCrunch’s reporting from Disrupt 2025.
Smarter hospitals and health data plumbing
Akara is going after one of the least glamorous, most expensive bottlenecks in care: turning over operating rooms. The company uses AI-driven sensors and autonomous UV disinfection robots to prep ORs faster, helping hospitals squeeze in more surgeries per day and boost both patient access and revenue.
On the data side, Eos.ai tackles the mess that is electronic medical records. Its platform cleans, compresses and harmonizes fragmented EMR data so AI models can actually learn from it. Standardized, higher-quality data is a prerequisite for almost every serious clinical AI product.
Pharos automates something every provider has to do and nobody has time for: extracting patient safety data from medical records and reporting it to regulators. By using AI instead of manual review, Pharos aims to free up clinical staff time while catching more potential harm events.
Care Hero focuses on people rather than paperwork. The startup builds a tech-enabled network for caregivers who support elderly and disabled patients, trying to stretch a limited workforce so each caregiver can help more people without burning out.
Diagnostics and monitoring without the needle
A big theme this year: getting critical diagnostic signals without blood draws or bulky hardware.
Uganda-based Che Innovations Uganda designs medical devices for low-resource settings, including NeoNest, an affordable transport warmer for premature infants. It’s meant for rural areas that don’t have access to full transport incubators.
MariTest is working on a bloodless, rapid diagnostic tool for early malaria detection in sub-Saharan Africa. By avoiding blood samples and trained lab techs, the team hopes to speed up diagnosis in remote regions.
Monere turns a smartphone camera into a screening tool for anemia and iron deficiency. By analyzing a user’s eyelid, its AI-powered platform aims to flag risk noninvasively and quickly.
Near Wave is developing a handheld, noninvasive device that can measure oxygen saturation and hemoglobin concentrations. The goal: collect key biomarkers faster and with less pain than traditional methods.
Vital Audio goes one step further and uses short voice samples as a vital-sign stream. Its bioacoustics tech estimates heart rate, blood pressure and respiratory metrics from voice, enabling health systems to keep tabs on large patient populations, including those in remote regions.
SpotitEarly brings together AI and trained dogs. The startup offers an at-home breath test where dogs, guided by AI analysis, detect compounds linked to multiple early-stage cancers. It builds on research showing that dogs’ sense of smell can spot cancer signatures.
Brain, nerves and new senses
On the frontier of neurotech, Axoft is building a tiny brain implant made from a soft material designed to safely interface with the nervous system over many years. The ambition is to treat severe neurological conditions without the long-term complications that come with stiffer, more rigid implants.
Neural Drive stays outside the skull. It’s developing a noninvasive brain–computer interface for paralyzed patients, using a “blink-to-speak” system that lets people instantly communicate essential and custom messages without surgery.
ArtSkin is rethinking touch. The company is building electronic artificial skin with embedded sensors that can restore a sense of touch for people using prosthetic limbs. The tech is noninvasive and can be layered onto existing prosthetics.
Stress and cognition are also getting hardware upgrades. AWEAR offers an ear-worn EEG device that monitors brain activity linked to chronic stress and provides feedback, a bit like a Fitbit for your mental load.
U.K.-based GLITCHERS Lab uses video games as a data-collection tool. Its titles are designed to gather brain data for health research, with a particular focus on Alzheimer’s disease, by gamifying cognitive tests to build large datasets.
Prosthetics, movement and ergonomics
Arm Bionics, an Armenian startup, develops 3D-printed prosthetic arms. The emphasis is on affordability, which could make high-function bionic limbs accessible in markets that have been priced out until now.
ELLUSTRÖS focuses on people who sit at desks rather than those who need prosthetics. Its system uses AI and image analysis to automatically tweak posture on seats for a better ergonomic fit, removing the need for manual chair adjustments and aiming to reduce injuries while boosting productivity.
Zemi Labs builds “smart clothing” for athletes. Its garments capture heart, muscle, skin and movement data across the body, offering a broader range of biosignals than a typical wrist-worn wearable and, potentially, deeper insights into performance.
Nutrition, metabolism and the gut
Several Battlefield 200 startups are betting that food is the next major prescription.
Endless Health offers at-home health assessments designed to predict heart health and metabolic disease risk, with the promise of catching problems early without a doctor’s visit.
PillarBiome uses AI to analyze an individual’s gut microbiome and convert that into personalized, science-backed health recommendations. The microbiome is information-rich; if interpreted well, it could drive tailored dietary advice.
Food for Health lands directly in the grocery aisle. Its app guides people toward foods that better match their specific health needs, aiming to ground every recommendation in scientific evidence.
NUSEUM runs this as infrastructure. It’s a B2B precision-nutrition AI platform that ingests complex health data and produces evidence-based food, grocery and recipe recommendations. The target customers are food delivery, e-commerce, diagnostics, health and insurance companies that want to surface better food choices to their end users.
Women’s and maternal health
Women’s health continues to gain dedicated startup attention.
Ovulio Corp. is building a saliva-based hormone monitor to help manage fertility, menopause and conditions like PCOS. Unlike many existing options, its noninvasive device is designed to be reusable.
Sybil Health combines science-backed therapies with lifestyle coaching to help women manage hormonal shifts during menopause. The company supports both hormone-based treatments and complementary, alternative and naturopathic approaches.
Yuzi Care connects families with birth and postpartum doulas and other care providers. It sits within a broader wave of digital maternal and postpartum health platforms aimed at closing gaps in support.
Mental health, sleep and stress
On the behavioral side, Some Other Place, now rebranded as Hug, connects users with trained, empathetic human listeners for real-time peer support. The premise is simple: Many people feel better when they can share worries without judgment.
Serene Sleep targets the physical side of rest. The company offers a simple, minimally invasive procedure that aims to permanently stop snoring and treat sleep apnea, potentially replacing the need for bulky CPAP machines for some patients.
Meo Health focuses on long Covid. It delivers a tech-enabled, drug-free recovery program that the company says has been clinically proven to improve symptoms.
And circling back to stress, AWEAR’s brain-sensing earwear is part of a broader push to quantify and tackle chronic stress before it becomes a full-blown clinical issue.
Kids, speech and cognition
VIZQ Technologies applies AI and VR to speech and language therapy for children. With many regions facing a shortage of speech therapists, making remote, software-driven therapy more accessible could help close the gap.
Workforce risk and reputation
Not every health-related risk shows up in a lab test.
Vocadian uses voice AI to detect fatigue in frontline workers. By picking up vocal markers of exhaustion, the company hopes employers can prevent accidents and maintain productivity.
Innov8 AI operates further upstream in the information flow. It analyzes social media to flag disruptive narratives and unfavorable sentiment early, helping organizations spot emerging reputation risks, including around health and safety issues.
Imaging and AI shortcuts
Finally, RADiCAIT, a spinout from Oxford, uses AI to transform routine CT scans into PET-like images. Because PET scanners are scarce and expensive, getting PET-level insights from standard CT scans could make advanced imaging far faster and cheaper to access.
Taken together, the health and wellness startups in this year’s Startup Battlefield 200 reflect a few clear bets: noninvasive everything, AI as infrastructure, and care models that extend far beyond the hospital walls. Only 20 teams pitch on the Disrupt main stage, but for investors tracking where healthtech is really heading, this broader cohort is where the signal is.
