AI NewsNext wave of VCs judging Startup Battlefield 200 contenders at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 revealed

Next wave of VCs judging Startup Battlefield 200 contenders at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 revealed

10:22 PM IST · September 16, 2026

A great pitch doesn’t winStartup Battlefield 200. A great company does. That’s why the VCs sitting in the judges’ seats matter so much. They aren’t looking for polished presentations or clever demos — they’re looking for founders solving real problems with businesses that can endure. Every question they ask is designed to uncover what slides and rehearsed answers can’t: conviction, clarity, execution, and whether this company has the potential to become the next category leader. For more than 15 years, Startup Battlefield has helped launch companies that went on to define entire markets, and every year a new group of founders earns the chance to join that legacy. Today, we’re introducing the next wave of judges who’ll take their seats atTechCrunch Disrupt 2026, happening on October 13-15 at Moscone West in San Francisco. They’ll spend each day evaluating ambitious startups across industries, asking the tough questions founders hope for — and sometimes fear. If you want to understand how experienced investors really evaluate early-stage companies, there’s no better place to watch than Startup Battlefield, live on the Disrupt Stage. Be sure to snag savings of up to $200 on your Disrupt 2026 ticket before rates increase on September 25 at 11:59 p.m. PT.Register here. Now, without further ado, meet the next five judges joining this year’s Startup Battlefield, the ultimate startup pitch competition. Aditi Maliwal, General Partner, Upfront Ventures Aditi Maliwalis a general partner atUpfront Ventures, where she invests at the pre-seed and seed stages in fintech, enterprise SaaS, AI applications, and developer tools. Her portfolio includes Clair, Writer, Arcade, and General Translation. Maliwal previously held roles at Google and Deutsche Bank and led the Series A investment in Chime during her tenure at a prior firm. She is Upfront’s first San Francisco-based partner. Michael Palank, General Partner, MaC Ventures Michael Palankis a general partner atMaC Ventures, a majority Black-owned venture firm that backs seed-stage consumer and enterprise companies through a culturally driven investment thesis, with a focus on AI, fintech, healthcare, media, entertainment, and aerospace and defense. Before transitioning to venture, Palank worked in Hollywood talent representation at William Morris and Overbrook Entertainment, Will Smith’s production company. Nell Daly, Co-founder and Managing Partner, Revenge Capital Nell Dalyis the co-founder and managing partner ofRevenge Capital, an evergreen sector-agnostic fund focused on backing overlooked founders — including women, BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, disabled, and neurodiverse entrepreneurs — across the United States and United Kingdom. Before launching the fund, Daly worked as a psychotherapist, a background she draws on directly in her founder-first investment approach. Grace Ge, Partner, Amplify Partners Grace Geis a partner atAmplify Partners, where she invests in AI, developer tooling, data infrastructure, and modern SaaS — with a particular focus on the layer between foundation models and enterprise applications. Her portfolio includes Pinecone, Eppo, Vivun, Orb, and Avoca. Amplify’s broader portfolio includes Datadog, Fastly, Temporal, dbt, and Modal. Ge was named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 list for Venture Capital. Crystal Huang, General Partner, Google Ventures Crystal Huangis a general partner atGV, where she focuses on enterprise SaaS, AI infrastructure, and fintech — with a particular lens on product-led and developer-led go-to-market strategies. Her portfolio companies include Typeface, Pecan AI, Sardine, Cacheflow, PostHog, Roboflow, and Sift. Before joining GV, Huang was an investor at NEA and GGV Capital and worked in technology mergers and acquisitions at Blackstone. Get to know all the VC judges on theDisrupt agenda. TechCrunch Disrupt 2026is happening October 13-15 in San Francisco, bringing 10,000+ tech leaders, VCs, and founders together to meet the next generation of breakout startups, connect with the leaders who could change their startup’s trajectory, and get a front-row seat to where the industry is headed.Save up to $200 on your ticketbefore rates increase on September 25. Save even more when youregister as a group.

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Former Infosys chief’s AI startup nabs another $53M

Hang Ten Systems, an AI startup founded by former Infosys CEO Vishal Sikka just four months ago, has expanded its seed funding by another $53 million. This new investment round was closed just five weeks after theinitial $32 million seed round was closed, the company tells TechCrunch. The fresh investment, led by Temasek’s early-stage investment platform Xora, takes Hang Ten’s total funding to $85 million. Mayfield, which led the startup’s earlier investment, also participated. Other investors include Aramco Ventures, Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan, Micron CEO Sanjay Mehrotra, and Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang, who is also on its board. Founded in May, Hang Ten is betting that AI can fundamentally reshape how large companies build and maintain software. The startup advises companies — typically with over $10 billion in annual revenue — on AI strategy and also helps build and modernize software. “The build part itself has basically become close to zero marginal cost, close to zero time,” Sikka (pictured above) told TechCrunch. He argued that AI is shifting the focus of software development from writing code to defining requirements and validating whether systems perform as intended. The thesis appears to be resonating with customers. Within 25 days of the first meeting with one customer, Hang Ten signed a multimillion-dollar contract to build a mission-critical software system, Sikka said, adding that he had never seen enterprise deals move that quickly. Hang Ten is now working with a mix of existing customers and late-stage prospects spanning 21 major enterprises, Sikka said, with some prospects in the proposal or contract-negotiation stage. The startup has secured multiple seven-figure contracts and is pursuing eight-figure deals. Moreover, its customers span the U.S., Europe, the Middle East, and Asia, and include Fresenius Kabi, Saudi Aramco, and Siemens Energy. The early customer wins prompted Xora to approach Hang Ten about investing, Sikka said, adding that Xora saw an opportunity to introduce the startup to other companies in Temasek’s portfolio. Sikka declined to disclose Hang Ten’s valuation but said the second round of seed funding was a bump up. With the fresh capital, Hang Ten plans to expand its engineering, consulting, and sales teams. The Palo Alto-headquartered startup currently has about 20 to 25 employees across the U.S., the Middle East, and Australia, and expects to hire in Europe and India, Sikka said. Hang Ten enters a crowded market in which AI model developers such as OpenAI and Anthropic are expanding their enterprise offerings, while traditional consulting firms are racing to embed generative AI into their own services. “Enterprises still need trusted partners who are independent of the underlying platform and who work with and solely in the interest of the enterprise,” Sikka said. “There will always be room for companies like us.” Hang Ten says its edge lies not in building another AI model, but in adapting AI to the complex software development processes of large enterprises. Co-founder and chief design officer Sanjay Rajagopalan told TechCrunch the startup’s engineers rely on an in-house framework, Hobie, that packages reusable AI “skills” for regulated industries and complex enterprise software projects. “We are actually delivering production software,” Rajagopalan said. “It’s not like we are doing some kind of PoC.” Hang Ten’s approach is already putting it in competition with traditional systems integrators. Many of the startup’s engagements, Sikka said, are replacing incumbent providers, though more than half of its current opportunities involve new projects that companies had previously put off, rather than work taken from existing vendors. Rajagopalan noted that Hang Ten can use teams of about two to four people for some projects that might previously have required about 30, although customers or independent third parties still handle final quality checks and certification. The startup promises customers a 10-fold improvement in cost, speed, or a combination of the two, he said. Even in four months of its debut, Hang Ten has received serious acquisition offers from “very big companies,” Sikka told TechCrunch. He, however, declined to identify the prospective buyers. The startup, he said, has turned them down for now as it focuses on expanding the business. Before founding Hang Ten, Sikka co-founded enterprise AI startupVianAIin 2019 after leaving Infosys in 2017. It raised$50 million in seed fundingand laterraised $140 millionin a 2021 round led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2. Sikka departed that startup in April, according to his LinkedIn profile. He told TechCrunch that VianAI is “going through a transaction,” declining to provide further details. As for how startups like Hang Ten could disrupt services providers like Infosys, Sikka noted, “We are fortunate that we don’t have the burden of legacy that we have to transform.” The startup takes its name from “hang ten,” the surfing maneuver in which a surfer rides with all 10 toes over the front of the board. For Sikka, it reflects the startup’s ambition to help enterprises ride the ongoing AI wave, what he called “probably the biggest wave of our lives.”

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SK Hynix reportedly in talks with Intel to build memory chips in US

South Korean memory chip giant SK Hynix is in discussions with Intel to manufacture RAM chips in the U.S. for the first time, Reutersreported, citing anonymous sources. The companies have reportedly discussed various options, one of which would have SK Hynix leasing space at Intel’s planned factory in Ohio to manufacture the chips. The chipmakers are also said to be considering a joint venture that could include cloud-service providers. SK Hynixtold TechCrunch on Wednesdaythat nothing has been finalized yet. “SK Hynix is exploring various options to strengthen its global competitiveness, but no specific plans or arrangements have been finalized at this time,” the Korean semiconductor company said in a statement. “No decisions have been made regarding the two scenarios mentioned in the article.” The Korean chip giant, which hasbenefited massivelyfrom skyrocketing demand for high-bandwidth memory RAM chips used in data centers for AI applications,is already building a $3.8 billionadvanced packaging and research facility for AI chips in West Lafayette, Indiana, with mass production expected to begin in 2029. The factory will use DRAM wafers made in South Korea and package them into HBM chips. It remains unclear what types of memory chips the company would produce in Ohio if the deal goes through. As a global chip shortage worsens, the Trump administration is seeking to expand production on American soil. The White House saidin Januarythat it could impose broader tariffs on semiconductor imports while offering tariff relief to companies investing in domestic manufacturing. SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won signaled support for U.S. chip production in July,sayingthe company should build factories in the U.S., if feasible, alongside those in South Korea’s Honam region. That month, the chipmakerlistedits American depository receipts on the Nasdaq, broadening its access to American investors. The potential deal with Intel could face scrutiny at home. Seoul holds that the decision would be up to SK Hynix, but any plan involving strategically important chip technology could trigger a government review under a law designed to prevent sensitive technology from being transferred overseas, according to Reuters. Intel and SK Hynix have done business before: In 2020, Intelsoldits NAND flash-memory business to SK Hynix for $9 billion. Intel did not immediately respond to TechCrunch’s request for comment outside regular business hours.

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3 days left to exhibit: Get your brand in front of VCs and high-value leads at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026

If you’re looking for opportunities to demo your breakthrough to VCs and build a powerful lead-gen, then thisFriday, September 18 at 11:59 p.m. PT, is your last day to book yourexhibit tableatTechCrunch Disrupt 2026. OnOctober 13-15 at Moscone West in San Francisco, 10,000+ founders, investors, operators, and tech leaders come together to discover startups, source deal flow, find products, and build partnerships. Your6′ × 30″ exhibit tableputs your startup in the highest-traffic area of Disrupt for three days. Use it to: Your package also includes 10 team passes, website and app branding, press-list access, Silver Tier sponsor branding, and more. Founders can access additional opportunities, including the Deal Flow Café and Investor-to-Founder Networking. Three days. Limited tables.Book yours before September 18 at 11:59 p.m. PT. Join 250+ top-tier tech leaders across 200+ sessions on six industry stagesto get practical insights on building, funding, and scaling in today’s tech landscape. Use interactive sessions and AI-powered matchmaking tomeet the people who can help move your business forward. And discover 300+ startups and watch Startup Battlefield 200 to find your next product, partner, or investment opportunity. Save up to $200 on your ticket before prices increase on September 25.

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