Former senior SpaceX government Tom Ochinero is teaming up with SpaceX alum-turned-VC, Achal Upadhyaya, and one in every of Sequoia’s prime finance leaders, Spencer Hemphill, on a brand new enterprise known as Interlagos Capital, TechCrunch has realized.
There may be little public data accessible about Interlagos, and the trio didn’t reply to TechCrunch’s request for remark. The corporate was formally integrated within the state of Delaware on March 7, and it was registered as an out-of-state firm with the state of California solely days in the past on April 11. Ochinero, Upadhyaya and Hemphill are all listed on the paperwork. The principal tackle is in El Segundo, California.
A trademark utility for “Interlagos” was filed with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Workplace on April 4. That utility lists an tackle equivalent to the one discovered on the corporate’s enterprise registration. The appliance states that the corporate will deal in “enterprise capital companies; enterprise capital funding companies, particularly, offering financing to rising and start-up firms.”
Ochinero departed from SpaceX in February after a virtually ten-year stint on the firm, the place he finally grew to become senior vice chairman of economic enterprise. In that function, he helped SpaceX develop into the undisputed world lead in business launch. Folks conversant in the matter advised CNBC on the time that Ochinero was resigning “to take care of a household medical matter.”
With Interlagos, he’s teaming up with one other SpaceX alum — Upadhyaya — who spent a decade in engineering roles at SpaceX earlier than becoming a member of funding agency Cantos as a enterprise accomplice in 2022. He left someday this 12 months, in line with his LinkedIn. At Cantos, Upadhyaya’s bets included satellite tv for pc bus producer Apex Area and movement management system developer Salient Movement, each startups headed by ex-SpaceX founders.
Spencer Hemphill, a finance government, is rounding out the staff. He’s coming from Sequoia, the place he additionally spent ten years. He additionally departed someday this 12 months, leaving the agency as assistant controller.
Ochinero is simply the most recent SpaceX government to maneuver from the behemoth house firm into enterprise investing. It’s standard sufficient for individuals to go away SpaceX to discovered different firms or put money into them that there’s a web site devoted to connecting the 2 teams. Different notable traders within the SpaceX-to-VC pipeline embody Founders Fund’s Scott Nolan, who was a really early SpaceX worker, and Alpine Area Ventures’ Bulent Alton.
