TechCrunch reveals five more judges for Startup Battlefield 200 at Disrupt 2026

TechCrunch has unveiled the names of five more judges who will assess Startup Battlefield 200 entrants ahead of TechCrunch Disrupt 2026. The announcement brings the judging panel close to completion, with 20 judges now revealed in total.

Startup Battlefield 200 will bring together 200 carefully chosen startups from around the world, selected after thousands of applications and multiple rounds of review. The companies will exhibit, network with investors, and vie for a spot in the live competition, where finalists will pitch before thousands of founders, investors, media representatives, and customers while fielding questions from experienced industry figures.

The new judges

Among the five newly announced judges is Caleb Appleton of Bison Ventures, who focuses on physical AI investments spanning techbio, robotics, and real-world intelligence. Sara Deshpande, general partner at Maven Ventures, invests in seed-stage consumer software companies, including those in digital health and consumer AI applications.

Aatish Nayak, who joined Kleiner Perkins as a partner in May 2026, previously held product roles at Harvey and Scale AI, and also worked on robotic defense systems at Shield AI. Jason Risch of Greylock invests in enterprise security and AI/ML infrastructure, with a portfolio that includes Onehouse and Baseten. Mark Xu, a partner at Index Ventures, backs cybersecurity, infrastructure, and AI startups such as Fireworks and Parallel.

The judging panel will ultimately determine which startups advance toward the Startup Battlefield finals, where five finalist judges will decide the winner of a $100,000 equity-free prize and the Disrupt Cup. TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 takes place October 13-15 at San Francisco's Moscone West, gathering more than 10,000 tech leaders, investors, and founders.