Startups & Funding
TechCrunch names judges for Startup Battlefield Sydney
TechCrunch and Stripe named the three judges — from Stripe, Ten13, and Hapana — who will pick Australia's top early-stage startups at Startup Battlefield Sydney on August 19.
TechCrunch is bringing Startup Battlefield to Australia in partnership with Stripe, with eight Australian startups set to pitch live at Stripe Tour Sydney on August 19 in front of investors, press, and the tech community. Three will win prizes, and one will earn an automatic ticket to TechCrunch Disrupt 2026, running October 13-15 in San Francisco.
Judging the pitches are three people TechCrunch says represent Australia’s startup ecosystem and global fintech: Jasmine Liew, head of startup and investor partnerships for APAC at Stripe; Brendan Hill, an angel investor and venture partner at Ten13; and Jarron Aizen, founder and CEO of Hapana. TechCrunch frames Liew as bringing institutional knowledge of scaling globally and the payment infrastructure behind modern commerce, Hill as representing the investor class that actually writes checks, and Aizen as bringing a founder’s-eye view of building in the Australian market.
Startup Battlefield has launched more than 1,700 companies globally, including Dropbox, Cloudflare, Discord, and Trello, and its alumni have collectively raised over $32 billion and produced 250+ exits, according to TechCrunch. The last time the competition came to Sydney, the winner was HealthMatch, now valued at over $25 million with a million patients globally.
The grand prize winner takes home $15,000 in Stripe fee credits plus automatic entry into Startup Battlefield 200 at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026; second place gets $5,000 in Stripe credits, and third place gets $2,000. All finalists get time with the judges, press attention, and access to the Stripe Tour Sydney audience of founders, operators, and investors. The event is hosted and emceed by Isabelle Johannessen, director of Startup Battlefield.
Why it matters
For Australian founders, the event is a rare shot at the kind of judge access, press exposure, and Disrupt pipeline that Startup Battlefield has historically funneled into companies like Dropbox and Cloudflare — a concrete on-ramp from a regional stage to TechCrunch’s flagship US event.