Five New VC Judges Join Startup Battlefield 200 at Disrupt 2026
Five venture investors from Upfront, MaC, Revenge Capital, Amplify and GV will judge Startup Battlefield 200 at Disrupt 2026 this October.
Summary
On September 16, five more investors were named judges for Startup Battlefield 200 at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026, October 13 to 15 at Moscone West in San Francisco. They will assess startups across industries on the Disrupt Stage, testing founders’ conviction, clarity, execution, durability and category leadership potential rather than pitch polish. The event expects more than 10,000 tech leaders, VCs and founders; Startup Battlefield has operated for more than 15 years.
Upfront Ventures general partner Aditi Maliwal backs pre-seed and seed fintech, enterprise SaaS, AI applications and developer tools, including Clair, Writer, Arcade and General Translation. Upfront’s first San Francisco partner previously worked at Google and Deutsche Bank and led Chime’s Series A. MaC Ventures general partner Michael Palank invests in seed consumer and enterprise startups spanning AI, fintech, healthcare, media, entertainment, aerospace and defense at the majority Black-owned firm; he previously worked at William Morris and Will Smith’s Overbrook Entertainment. Revenge Capital co-founder Nell Daly runs an evergreen US and UK fund for overlooked women, BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, disabled and neurodiverse founders, applying her psychotherapy background. Amplify Partners partner Grace Ge invests between foundation models and enterprise applications across AI, developer tooling, data infrastructure and modern SaaS. She backs Pinecone, Eppo, Vivun, Orb and Avoca; Amplify also backs Datadog, Fastly, Temporal, dbt and Modal. Forbes named Ge to Venture Capital’s 30 Under 30. GV general partner Crystal Huang targets enterprise SaaS, AI infrastructure and fintech through product-led and developer-led strategies, backing Typeface, Pecan AI, Sardine, Cacheflow, PostHog, Roboflow and Sift after NEA, GGV Capital and Blackstone. Tickets remain up to $200 cheaper until September 25 at 11:59 p.m. PT, with group savings; exhibit bookings close September 18.
Positives
- Five new judges bring investment expertise spanning AI, fintech, healthcare, SaaS, developer tools, media, aerospace and defense.
- Nell Daly’s evergreen Revenge Capital fund backs overlooked founders across the United States and United Kingdom.
- More than 10,000 technology leaders, VCs and founders are expected at the October 13 to 15 event.
- Aditi Maliwal previously led Chime’s Series A and became Upfront Ventures’ first San Francisco-based partner.
- Up to $200 in ticket savings remains available before September 25, with additional discounts for groups.
Risks & concerns
- Ticket rates increase after September 25 at 11:59 p.m. PT, narrowing the window for the advertised $200 saving.
- Exhibit-table bookings close September 18, only two days after the five judges were announced.
- Founders face scrutiny of execution, durability and category leadership potential, not merely their presentation quality.
- The announcement identifies no Startup Battlefield 200 contenders or competition outcomes, leaving the participating companies unspecified.