Next five VCs judging Startup Battlefield 200 contenders at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026
TechCrunch TechCrunch Events
Five more VCs are joining Startup Battlefield 200’s judging panel for Disrupt 2026. They’ll help pick who gets to pitch for the $100,000 prize and Disrupt Cup.
Based on reporting by TechCrunch, TechCrunch Events — read the original for the full story.
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The Startup Battlefield 200 is getting close to the finish line. After thousands of applications, multiple review rounds, and hundreds of hours of judging, TechCrunch has now named five more venture investors who will help decide which startups move ahead at Disrupt 2026.
Those 200 startups will gather in a couple of weeks at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 to show their work, meet investors, and fight for a spot in the live competition. The selected few will pitch in front of thousands of founders, investors, media, and customers, then take questions from judges who spend their time spotting companies before the rest of the market catches up.
The latest additions are Caleb Appleton of Bison Ventures, Sara Deshpande of Maven Ventures, Aatish Nayak of Kleiner Perkins, Jason Risch of Greylock, and Mark Xu of Index Ventures. Their backgrounds cover physical AI, consumer software, enterprise security, infrastructure, and AI native founders, which is basically the sort of range that makes this competition useful instead of ceremonial.
TechCrunch says 20 judges have been revealed so far, with five more still to come for the final round that determines who wins the $100,000 equity-free prize and the Disrupt Cup. The event runs October 13-15 at San Francisco’s Moscone West, with more than 10,000 tech leaders, VCs, and founders expected to attend. And yes, the pitch competition is still the main draw, which is exactly how it should be.
My take — AI-written commentary, not fact-checked reporting
This is the rare startup spectacle that still has a practical job: filtering noise. The panel is heavy on investors who know where the bodies are buried in AI, security, and infra, which is probably what a competition like this needs more than another round of startup cosplay. Silicon Valley loves to say it wants conviction; here, at least, it has to show its work.
Read more about this at: TechCrunch