Cerberus, WeGlobal AI and LOOQ win Central Eurasia final
Cerberus of Uzbekistan, WeGlobal AI of Kazakhstan and Japan’s LOOQ have taken the top three places at Central Eurasia’s Road to TechCrunch Startup Battlefield 2026 regional final. The companies will represent the region in Startup Battlefield 200 at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 in San Francisco on October 13–15, where more than 10,000 technology leaders are expected to attend.
The three teams emerged from 22 regional finalists, selected from a record 726 applications spanning 39 countries. The programme, run by Silkroad Innovation Hub with TechCrunch, Freedom Holding, Astana Hub and IT Park Uzbekistan, received nearly 50% more applications than its 2025 debut, which drew 485 startups from 27 countries.
AI dominates the regional field
AI products accounted for 84% of this year’s applications. Cerberus develops an AI-powered cybersecurity product designed to hunt automatically for vulnerabilities in corporate IT systems. The company argues that security tools relying heavily on general-purpose language models can hallucinate, creating risks when they are allowed to interact with corporate infrastructure.
Founded in Uzbekistan, Cerberus has completed 500 Global Eurasia and has been accepted into the Alchemist Silkroad — Silicon Valley Residency programme. Its first-place finish also marks Uzbekistan’s first Road to TechCrunch Startup Battlefield champion.
Second-place WeGlobal AI addresses the shortage of school psychologists in Kazakhstan. Its platform gives schools AI tools intended to track student mental health and provide career guidance at a scale that recruitment alone could not match.
Third-place LOOQ, founded by Ayan Sakenov and Yudai Ishida, is building camera-based hardware and an attention API for out-of-home advertising. The technology is intended to measure how many people actually look at billboards and other physical advertisements, giving advertisers a measure of real-world attention.
Funding, credits and the San Francisco stage
The winners will share a $100,000 investment pool funded by Astana Hub Ventures, IT Park Ventures and Silkroad Innovation Hub. Cerberus will receive $50,000, WeGlobal AI $30,000 and LOOQ $20,000, on standard market terms in exchange for equity.
OpenAI also allocated $280,000 in API credits across the 22 finalists. The three winners received $100,000 in aggregate, matching the investment allocation, while each of the remaining 19 finalists received $10,000 in credits.
The competition included 47 jurors from eight countries at the regional final, alongside AI-Dana, an AI judge participating independently for the second consecutive year. The pathway described in Startup Battlefield Top 20 pathway and benefits gives context to how finalists can progress from regional selection to the Startup Battlefield 200 stage.
What the result means for founders
The outcome puts three AI-focused companies from Central Eurasia and Japan before a global technology audience at Disrupt. For businesses building in the region, the practical implication is that a specific, demonstrable customer problem—from infrastructure security to school support or advertising measurement—remains central when seeking international visibility and investment opportunities.