TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 Day 2 opens with 300+ startups
TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 has entered its second day at Moscone West in San Francisco, where more than 10,000 founders, investors, startup teams and technology leaders are expected to connect. The Day 2 programme combines an Expo Hall of more than 300 startups with pitches, stage sessions, roundtables and dedicated networking formats.
Registration and badge pick-up run from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Pacific Time in the Level 1 lobby. The Expo Hall, on Level 2, is open over the same hours, giving attendees time to see products in action, compare tools and speak directly with company teams.
AI, robotics and startup funding dominate the agenda
Artificial intelligence is a central theme of Day 2. TechCrunch lists speakers and participants from NVIDIA, Waabi, Flock Safety and Ricursive Intelligence, with conversations spanning robotics, AI hardware, public safety and venture investment. The Disrupt Stage includes sessions on surveillance and public safety, Benchmark’s investment perspective, and AI systems that design their own hardware.
The Real World AI Stage focuses on deployment beyond software interfaces. Its programme includes sessions on AI systems where failure is not an option, edge operation when cloud connectivity is unavailable, general-purpose robotics and scaling from prototype to production. Hello Robot is scheduled to present Stretch in a live robot demonstration, while Agility Robotics is due to bring its Digit humanoid robot on stage.
The AI Stage also addresses enterprise questions around agent security, model behaviour, AI adoption, SaaS business models and cloud complexity. Discussions include a session on who can read an agent’s prompts, as well as panels involving Okta, Hugging Face, Anthropic, AWS, Databricks and OpenAI.
Pitching, comparison and targeted meetings
Startup Battlefield 200 continues with companies in healthtech, life sciences, enterprise and security competing for a place in the final and $100,000 in equity-free funding. The Pitch Showcase Stage adds enterprise-focused fast pitches, intended to let founders present products and value propositions while attendees identify companies and approaches worth examining further.
The Builders Stage broadens the agenda to fundraising, customer acquisition, repeatable product success and the prospects for companies not built around AI. Among its sessions are panels on Series A fundraising in 2027, gaining a first 1,000 customers without a marketing budget, and navigating a multi-model AI environment.
Networking is structured around the TechCrunch Events app and its AI-powered matchmaking feature. The Networking Lounge is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., while the Deal Flow Cafe is limited to Founder Pass and Investor Pass holders. The investor-only StrictlyVC programme covers IPOs, family offices and limited partner priorities. For attendees focused on targeted introductions, planned investor meetings at the event outlines the scale of planned investor meetings at the event.
Practical implication for attendees
Day 2 offers a concentrated setting for businesses to assess emerging products, pressure-test product and investment assumptions, and turn brief introductions into follow-up actions. Teams can get more value by identifying the operational problem they want to solve, selecting relevant sessions and exhibitors, and leaving each conversation with an agreed next step.