TechCrunch’s Startup Battlefield is usually all about the main stage: 20 finalists, one cup, and a $100,000 check.
But the real signal often comes earlier — inside the Startup Battlefield 200, the broader cohort of early-stage companies that TechCrunch’s editors pull from thousands of applicants. Buried in that group this year is a particularly interesting cluster: startups sitting at the intersection of government, public safety and the law.
These teams aren’t building the next dating app. They’re rethinking how divorces get filed, how wildfires are detected, how immigration cases move, and even how active shooters are stopped.
Here’s a closer look at the government- and legal-focused Startup Battlefield 200 selectees highlighted by TechCrunch.
Aparti: Automating the messiest part of family law
What it does: Aparti uses AI to automate legal intake forms and other documents for family law firms, with an initial focus on divorce cases.
Why it matters: Most AI legal tools chase big corporate or contract work. Aparti is going after the emotionally and administratively brutal divorce workflow — a niche that’s under-served by the current wave of AI legal tech. If it can successfully handle sensitive, high-friction family law paperwork, that’s a strong signal for automation across other consumer-facing legal services.
Ascender: Robots for disaster response
What it does: Ascender has built a robot that can climb utility poles and flagpoles to assist with humanitarian assistance and disaster response.
Why it matters: Climate-driven disasters are putting new pressure on aging infrastructure. Deploying climbing robots to inspect poles and lines could keep humans out of harm’s way and speed up response times after storms, fires or earthquakes — a clear example of robotics stepping directly into public-safety and emergency workflows.
Bot Mediation: AI that sits between lawyers, not clients
What it does: Bot Mediation uses AI to help settle legal disputes.
Why it matters: Most legal AI pitches focus on research or drafting. Mediation is a different angle: using AI to streamline the back-and-forth of dispute resolution itself. If the software can nudge both sides toward common ground faster — without replacing human judgment — it could reduce costs and delays for civil disputes.
Depth AI: Spatial computing for 3D medical imaging
What it does: Depth AI builds AI for spatial computing and modeling, including holographic-style imaging that can be used in healthcare to create 3D images of the body for diagnosing illness.
Why it matters: Better diagnostics are a healthcare story on the surface, but they also carry big implications for public systems — from national health services to veterans’ care. More accurate 3D imaging can shorten diagnosis times and potentially reduce the need for invasive procedures, easing pressure on already stretched public-health budgets.
ILias AI: Training noses with algorithms
What it does: ILias works in so-called “scent tech,” using AI to build olfactory technology that can help, for example, dogs detect the smell of drugs.
Why it matters: Tech usually leans on vision and audio; smell is rarely part of the stack. ILias flips that. By digitizing and modeling scents, its tools could strengthen law-enforcement and customs work, where detection dogs play a critical role in intercepting drugs and other contraband.
JustiGuide: Immigration help that doesn’t start with a blank form
What it does: JustiGuide connects immigrants with lawyers and tools designed to make the immigration process more efficient.
Why it matters: Immigration systems around the world are notoriously slow, confusing and paperwork-heavy. JustiGuide, which TechCrunch notes won the policy and protection pitch stage at Disrupt, is trying to turn that maze into a guided process. Anything that makes legal representation and case progression more accessible for immigrants is likely to find demand on both sides of the Atlantic.
Orchestra: A modern take on citywide security cameras
What it does: Orchestra has built a camera network to manage public safety and detect crime.
Why it matters: Cities have deployed CCTV for decades, but the software on top is changing fast. Orchestra’s approach hints at a new generation of security networks — ones that can coordinate across cameras and surface potential incidents in near real time. That raises familiar questions about privacy and oversight, but also offers tools for resource-strapped public-safety departments.
Ponderosa AI: Drones for early fire detection
What it does: Ponderosa AI uses drones to detect and help control small fires.
Why it matters: Wildfires start small, then escalate faster than human teams can react. An autonomous or semi-autonomous early-warning layer — especially one that can continuously patrol fire-prone areas — is increasingly critical as fire seasons lengthen and become more destructive.
Pytho AI: Software for warfighters’ planning
What it does: Pytho AI wants to make the planning process more efficient for warfighters on the battlefield.
Why it matters: Defense tech is seeing a new wave of software-heavy startups, and Pytho AI slots directly into that trend. By focusing on planning — not hardware — it targets the decision-making layer that shapes how missions unfold. It’s a reminder that “government tech” doesn’t end at city hall; it extends all the way to the front lines.
Shothawk AI: Detecting and subduing active shooters
What it does: Shothawk AI has created a device that tracks, detects and subdues active shooters using pepper gel. The company was founded in 2023 by Brandon Johnson, Ohm Vyas and Ved Vyas.
Why it matters: With gun violence in public spaces like schools and supermarkets rising, Shothawk AI is explicitly framing its hardware as a way to intervene before a situation becomes even more deadly. It’s a controversial but unmistakably consequential application of sensing and targeting tech.
Torch Systems: Monitoring high-value assets for wildfire risk
What it does: Torch Systems monitors high-value assets, assessing air quality, fire risks and security to help prevent wildfires early.
Why it matters: As climate change drives more frequent and severe wildfires, insurers, utilities and governments are all looking for earlier signals of danger. Torch Systems sits right in that risk-prevention stack, promising more data — and, ideally, more time to act — before a blaze spirals out of control.
The bigger picture
Taken together, this year’s government- and legal-adjacent Battlefield companies tell a clear story. AI and robotics aren’t just chasing consumer convenience or enterprise productivity; they’re moving into the slow, heavily regulated systems that underpin society itself — courts, immigration offices, disaster response centers and public-safety agencies.
If even a fraction of these startups graduate from the Startup Battlefield 200 into scaled deployments with cities, agencies or law firms, the way government and the law operate could look very different by the next TechCrunch Disrupt.
