Cerberus, WeGlobal AI and LOOQ Win Central Eurasia’s 2026 Startup Battlefield Final
Cerberus, WeGlobal AI and LOOQ win Central Eurasia’s 2026 contest, sharing $100,000 and advancing to Startup Battlefield 200 at Disrupt 2026.
Summary
Cerberus, WeGlobal AI and LOOQ placed first, second and third at the 2026 Road to TechCrunch Startup Battlefield regional final, advancing to Startup Battlefield 200 at TechCrunch Disrupt in San Francisco from October 13 to 15 before more than 10,000 technology leaders. Silkroad Innovation Hub ran the contest with TechCrunch, Freedom Holding, Astana Hub and IT Park Uzbekistan. Its record 726 applications from 39 countries were nearly 50% above 2025’s 485 from 27 countries; 84% involved AI. National rounds produced 22 finalists judged live by 47 jurors from eight countries, plus independent AI judge AI-Dana for a second year.
Uzbekistan’s Cerberus, founded by CEO Aziz Akhmedkhodjaev, automatically hunts vulnerabilities in corporate IT systems while addressing hallucination risks in general-purpose language models. Uzbekistan’s first champion previously joined 500 Global Eurasia and was accepted into the Alchemist Silkroad Silicon Valley Residency program. Kazakhstan’s WeGlobal AI, led by co-founder and CEO Bolat Ashim, helps schools track student mental health and provide career guidance amid a psychologist shortage. Japan’s LOOQ, founded by CEO Ayan Sakenov and Yudai Ishida, uses camera hardware and an attention API to measure views of billboards and other out-of-home advertising, progressing from prototype to deployments and customers.
The winners share $100,000 in equity investment on standard market terms from Astana Hub Ventures, IT Park Ventures and Silkroad Innovation Hub: Cerberus receives $50,000, WeGlobal AI $30,000 and LOOQ $20,000. OpenAI awarded $280,000 in API credits, with $100,000 divided among the winners in the same proportions and $10,000 for each of the other 19 finalists. The remaining top 10 were Suriy, TelAgri, SeaDar, Kaptın Kaptın, Admyra, MVSxAI and Soup.
Positives
- 726 applications from 39 countries set records, rising nearly 50% from 485 applications across 27 countries in 2025.
- Cerberus became Uzbekistan’s first Road to TechCrunch Startup Battlefield champion and secured the largest investment allocation, $50,000.
- WeGlobal AI applies scalable mental health monitoring and career guidance to Kazakhstan’s shortage of school psychologists.
- LOOQ has moved its outdoor advertising measurement technology from prototype to real-world deployments and paying customers.
- $280,000 in OpenAI API credits reached all 22 finalists, including $10,000 for each of the 19 nonwinning teams.
- Three winners will present at Startup Battlefield 200 in San Francisco before more than 10,000 technology leaders.
Risks & concerns
- General-purpose language models can hallucinate when testing corporate systems, creating potentially serious cybersecurity consequences that Cerberus aims to address.
- Kazakhstan’s shortage of school psychologists leaves schools unable to meet student mental health and career guidance needs through hiring alone.
- Only 22 of 726 applicants reached the regional final, and just three advanced to Startup Battlefield 200.
- The $100,000 prize pool is invested for equity on standard market terms rather than awarded as non-dilutive funding.
- 84% of applicants were building AI products, showing that the competition field has become heavily concentrated in one technology category.