Musca is the winner of TechCrunch Battlefield Tokyo 2018

TechCrunch is in the heart of Japan and we’ve been hearing from some of Tokyo’s brightest entrepreneurs competing to win the Battlefield startup competition here. We’ve whittled down the group of 20 startups that have presented onstage for our judges, and we’re proud to announce the winner of TechCrunch Tokyo 2018.

The winner is Musca!

The startup is looking to leverage the simple housefly as a solution to the global food crisis, helping curve starvation by creating high-quality organic fertilizer and animal feed in a manner that’s much quicker than existing methods. The company’s secret weapon is a breed of flies that the company claims is more resilient and more effective. The larva help break down and dry out animal excrement which is used as high-grade fertilizer while the larva are used as feed for birds and fish. This process takes just a week, compared to the 2-3 months other solutions take.

Musca was selected after impressing our expert judges in their first round of presentation before being selected for a second round alongside the teams from Job Rainbow, Kuraseru, Aeronext, Pol and Eco-Pork.

Musca will take a home a check for 1 million yen and bragging rights as one of the top young startups in Japan.