GoKawiilFor founders, Startup Battlefield 200 is one of the biggest moments of their careers. For everyone else in the TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 audience, it’s one of the best ways to learn how great companies are actually evaluated by VCs.
This startup pitch competition is as intense as you’d expect. From October 13–15 at San Francisco’s Moscone West, every hand-picked founder has six minutes to make their case, but the most revealing moments often come after the presentation ends. That’s when the judges start asking the questions every investor, customer, and future employee will eventually want answered. Can this team execute? Is the market big enough? Why now? What’s defensible? Those conversations are as valuable for the thousands of founders watching from the audience as they are for the companies on stage.
Image Credits:Kimberly White / Getty Images
That’s why we’re continuing to build one of the strongest judging panels in Startup Battlefield’s history. Today we’re excited to introduce another group of five top-tier investors who’ll help identify the companies with the potential to become tomorrow’s breakout success stories.
Join the Startup Battlefield contenders and VC judges on the main stage, alongside 10,000+ tech leaders attending Disrupt, and watch the next generation of startups compete for their place in TechCrunch history. Register now to save up to $200 on your pass before prices increase on September 25 at 11:59 p.m. PT.
The next five VCs deciding which Startup Battlefield contenders advance
Without further ado, meet the next batch of investors who will judge which early-stage founder walks away with the $100,000 prize. Get to know these judges, along with the first 10 already announced on the Disrupt agenda.
Image Credits:TechCrunch
Vaibhav ‘Dr.V’ Agrawal, Co-Founder and General Partner, ODDBIRD VC
Dr.V is the co-founder and general partner of ODDBIRD VC, a pre-seed fund he founded in 2024 to back AI companies reindustrializing the West — with a focus on health and bio, critical supply chains, and real-world automation. A trained physician with an MBBS degree, Agrawal also holds an MBA from Stanford and previously served as a General Partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners India, where he backed early-stage startups beginning in 2016. His current portfolio includes Anterior, a healthcare AI company that has raised $64 million from NEA and Sequoia.
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