TechCrunch has announced the next five venture capitalists (VCs) who will serve as judges for the Startup Battlefield 200 competition at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026. The event is set to take place from October 13-15 at Moscone West in San Francisco.
The newly revealed judges include Aditi Maliwal, a general partner at Upfront Ventures, who invests in areas such as fintech, enterprise SaaS, and AI applications. Michael Palank, a general partner at MaC Ventures, focuses on seed-stage consumer and enterprise companies with an emphasis on AI, fintech, and healthcare.
Nell Daly, co-founder and managing partner of Revenge Capital, backs overlooked founders across the United States and United Kingdom. Grace Ge, a partner at Amplify Partners, invests in AI, developer tooling, and data infrastructure. Crystal Huang, a general partner at Google Ventures (GV), concentrates on enterprise SaaS, AI infrastructure, and fintech.
These VCs will evaluate startups across various industries, asking questions designed to assess the companies' potential to become category leaders.