Meet the next wave of VCs judging Startup Battlefield 200 at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026

TechCrunch announced five additional venture capital investors who will serve as judges for Startup Battlefield 200 at Disrupt 2026, held October 13–15 at San Francisco’s Moscone West. The newly named panelists represent ODDBIRD VC, ICONIQ Growth, General Catalyst, IVP and Eclipse Ventures and will join previously announced judges to evaluate early-stage startups competing for a $100,000 prize.

By AI Newsroom· Reviewed by Pranav, Founder & Editor-in-ChiefPublished about 3 hours agoUpdated about 3 hours ago0 views

Meet the next wave of VCs judging Startup Battlefield 200 at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026

Why It Matters

The judges’ evaluations provide public insight into the criteria VCs use to assess early-stage companies, making Battlefield sessions a learning opportunity for founders and investors alike. The added judges broaden the sector expertise onstage, spanning AI, enterprise software, healthcare, manufacturing and supply-chain technologies.

Key Facts

Event: TechCrunch Disrupt 2026, Startup Battlefield 200
Dates: October 13–15, 2026
Location: Moscone West, San Francisco
Prize: $100,000
Judges announced (five): Vaibhav ‘Dr.V’ Agrawal, Anu Bharadwaj, Sho Sho Leigha Ho, Miloni Madan Presler, Aidan Madigan-Curtis

TechCrunch has added five venture capital investors to the judging panel for Startup Battlefield 200 at Disrupt 2026. The competition runs on the main stage during Disrupt, where each selected founder will have six minutes to pitch and face a post-presentation Q&A designed to probe execution plans, market size, defensibility and timing.

The newly announced judges are Vaibhav ‘Dr.V’ Agrawal of ODDBIRD VC, Anu Bharadwaj of ICONIQ Growth, Sho Sho Leigha Ho of General Catalyst, Miloni Madan Presler of IVP, and Aidan Madigan-Curtis of Eclipse Ventures. Their backgrounds span pre-seed and growth investing and include experience across AI, enterprise software, healthcare, manufacturing, logistics and climate-related technology.

Agrawal co-founded ODDBIRD VC in 2024 to back AI companies focused on reindustrializing the West, and his portfolio includes healthcare AI company Anterior, which has raised $64 million from NEA and Sequoia. Bharadwaj focuses on enterprise software and AI at ICONIQ Growth and previously served nearly 12 years as president and COO of Atlassian. Sho Sho Leigha Ho joined General Catalyst in 2024 as a seed partner and has public investments including Graylark and Autoscience. Presler at IVP works with founders scaling from Series B through pre-IPO in enterprise and healthcare, bringing prior growth equity experience, while Madigan-Curtis at Eclipse invests in AI, IoT and manufacturing solutions and leads the firm’s Carbon Optimization framework.

Startup Battlefield 200 is positioned as both a competition for founders and an educational forum for attendees, with judges’ questioning intended to mirror the scrutiny startups will face from future investors, customers and employees. TechCrunch is encouraging registration ahead of a price increase on September 25 at 11:59 p.m. PT and notes Disrupt will bring more than 10,000 tech leaders together in San Francisco.