TechCrunch’s annual Startup Battlefield 200 selects 200 early-stage companies from hundreds of global applicants to pitch at the Disrupt conference in front of investors and the international tech community. At DETO 2026, a technology conference in Seoul, nine South Korean early-stage startups competed for a slot in the 2027 Startup Battlefield 200.
The participating companies cover several deep-tech sectors—healthcare, fintech, energy, semiconductors and AI—and all nine have plans to enter the U.S. market as part of their international expansion. Voinosis won the local competition at DETO 2026.
Winner: Voinosis
Voinosis develops an AI tool that analyzes speech features—such as pitch, pauses, rhythm and response times—to detect changes associated with brain health. The company says each voice check takes under five minutes. According to the startup, the technology has been tested in Greek, Japanese and English and does not require separate training for each language.
In a clinical study involving 146 participants, Voinosis reports 88% accuracy in screening for potential cognitive issues. Its target customers include hospitals, senior living facilities, insurers and individual consumers. The company also plans to integrate voice checks with cognitive training, assessments and clinician-provided treatments. Voinosis was founded by Grace Shin, who previously spent more than 25 years as an otologic surgeon. The startup is raising a Series A round and has secured a South Korean pharmaceutical company as a strategic investor.
The other competitors (in alphabetical order)
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Awesome Lab: Based in Seoul, Awesome Lab produces ThermoFlux, a heating system that uses water electrolysis and ionization to generate heat. The system can serve building heating, water supply and industrial processes, and the company says it can reduce energy consumption and carbon emissions. For international expansion it uses market-specific strategies; in the U.S. it plans to supply core OEM modules and collaborate with boiler, water heater and HVAC manufacturers.
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Crosshub: Crosshub helps travelers and international visitors verify identity and set up payment methods abroad. Its IDBlock platform combines identity verification and payment services using Self-Sovereign Identity (SSI) and zero-knowledge proofs, allowing users to prove identity across borders without sharing unnecessary personal data. Crosshub is integrating the technology with payment systems to improve access to financial services for travelers.
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DeepFusion AI: DeepFusion AI has created a 4D radar-based imaging system with additional sensors for autonomous mobility, robotaxi, maritime surveillance and defense use cases. The system merges RF sensors with radar and lidar to detect objects, motion or distance without direct line-of-sight. The company says all sensors are packaged into a single, customizable unit.
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EFLOW: EFLOW develops specialized motors that produce higher torque in a smaller footprint for robots, drones, satellites and other mobility applications. The startup also builds actuators that control robotic joint motion.
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Otiton Medical: Otiton Medical offers two medical devices: one for measuring body temperature, and another that captures ear canal images and analyzes the eardrum. The company says its AI was trained on about 55,000 eardrum images, and the device has received medical certification in South Korea.
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Riibotics: Riibotics focuses on rapid deployment of warehouse robots and says it can deliver operational systems within a day. The company aims to lower warehouse deployment costs by streamlining setup work including infrastructure, warehouse mapping, system integration via custom middleware, task programming and safety checks.
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Ternell: Ternell, a semiconductor startup based in Ulsan, is developing a new memory architecture to reduce power use in AI chips. Unlike conventional two-state memories, Ternell’s T-SRAM introduces a third state for more efficient data storage. Founded in 2019 by KyungRok Kim, a former Samsung Electronics engineer, Ternell reports that tests on 28-nanometer chips showed a 33%–102% increase in memory capacity per area and a 55%–71% reduction in energy required to access data compared with conventional SRAM.
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Testbank: Testbank is an edtech startup building Solve, an app that converts printed study materials—like workbooks and test-prep books—into interactive digital versions. The company uses AI to identify question and answer spaces in publishers’ PDFs while preserving the original layout. Solve lets users write answers directly on the page and receive automated grading.
Why this matters
The group of Korean startups presenting at DETO 2026 highlights that South Korea’s startup ecosystem is active across multiple deep-tech domains and that many companies are targeting U.S. market entry. Securing a place in TechCrunch’s Startup Battlefield 200 can provide international visibility, investor meetings and partnership opportunities, making selection an important milestone for early-stage companies pursuing global growth.
