Central Eurasia names its 2026 Road to Battlefield winners: Cerberus, WeGlobal AI, and LOOQ
Cerberus, WeGlobal AI, and LOOQ placed first, second and third at the Central Eurasia regional final of the Road to TechCrunch Startup Battlefield 2026 and will represent the region in the Startup Battlefield 200 at TechCrunch Disrupt in San Francisco on October 13-15. They were selected from 22 finalists drawn from a record 726 applications across 39 countries.
Why It Matters
The results highlight growing startup activity and investor interest across Central Eurasia — a field in which 84% of applicants were building AI products — and give these teams a pathway to showcase their work to thousands of global tech leaders at TechCrunch Disrupt. The competition also signals expanding international visibility for founders from countries such as Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan.
Key Facts
- Event: Road to TechCrunch Startup Battlefield 2026 Central Eurasia regional final
- Winners: 1st Cerberus (Uzbekistan); 2nd WeGlobal AI (Kazakhstan); 3rd LOOQ
- Advances to: Startup Battlefield 200 at TechCrunch Disrupt, San Francisco, October 13-15, 2026
- Applications: 726 startups from 39 countries
- Finalists: 22 regional finalists
Three startups from Central Eurasia — Cerberus, WeGlobal AI and LOOQ — finished as the top three at the regional Road to TechCrunch Startup Battlefield final and will represent the region among the Startup Battlefield 200 companies at TechCrunch Disrupt in San Francisco on October 13-15. The Disrupt event is expected to draw more than 10,000 tech leaders, giving the winning teams broad international exposure.
The Central Eurasia program drew a record 726 applications from 39 countries, nearly 50% more than the 485 submissions received during the competition’s 2025 debut. National selection rounds reduced the field to 22 finalists, who pitched live in front of 47 jurors representing eight countries; an independent AI judge called AI-Dana participated for a second year. Organizers noted that AI dominated the applicant pool, with 84% of entries building AI-based products.
The three winners are all AI-focused. Cerberus, the first-place team from Uzbekistan, offers an AI agent that automatically hunts for vulnerabilities in corporate IT systems and aims to test real infrastructure safely without relying on general-purpose models that can hallucinate. Cerberus has previously gone through 500 Global Eurasia and was accepted into the Alchemist Silkroad — Silicon Valley Residency program. Organizers said Cerberus’s victory marks Uzbekistan’s first Road to TechCrunch Startup Battlefield champion.
Second-place WeGlobal AI from Kazakhstan provides AI tools for schools to monitor student mental health and deliver career guidance at scale, addressing a shortage of school psychologists. Third-place LOOQ builds AI-powered hardware to measure who actually looks at a billboard. Silkroad Innovation Hub, which runs the Road to Battlefield with partners including TechCrunch, Freedom Holding, Astana Hub and IT Park Uzbekistan, said the competition’s goal is to give founders regional visibility and connections to global opportunities. The rest of the top 10 finalists included Suriy (Mongolia), TelAgri (Georgia), SeaDar (Azerbaijan), Kaptın Kaptın (Türkiye), Admyra (United States), MVSxAI (Qatar), and Soup (Kazakhstan).
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