Former senior SpaceX government Tom Ochinero is teaming up with SpaceX alum-turned-VC Achal Upadhyaya and one in every of Sequoia’s high finance leaders, Spencer Hemphill, on a brand new enterprise known as Interlagos Capital, TechCrunch has realized.
There is little public data accessible about Interlagos, and the trio didn’t reply to TechCrunch’s request for remark. The firm was formally integrated within the state of Delaware on March 7, and it was registered as an out-of-state firm with California solely days in the past, on April 11. Ochinero, Upadhyaya and Hemphill are all listed on the paperwork. The principal handle is in El Segundo, California.
A trademark software for “Interlagos” was filed with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on April 4. That software lists an handle similar to the one discovered on the corporate’s enterprise registration. The software states that the corporate will deal in “venture capital services; venture capital funding services, namely, providing financing to emerging and start-up companies.”
Ochinero departed from SpaceX in February after a virtually 10-year stint on the firm, the place he ultimately turned senior vp of business enterprise. In that function, he helped SpaceX develop into the undisputed international lead in industrial launch. People aware of the matter advised CNBC on the time that Ochinero was resigning “to attend to a family 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 the funding agency Cantos as a enterprise associate in 2022. He left someday this 12 months, in response to his LinkedIn. At Cantos, Upadhyaya’s bets included satellite tv for pc bus producer Apex Space and movement management system developer Salient Motion, each startups headed by ex-SpaceX founders.
Spencer Hemphill, a finance government, is rounding out the group. He’s coming from Sequoia, the place he additionally spent 10 years. He departed someday this 12 months, leaving the agency as assistant controller.
Ochinero is simply the newest SpaceX government to maneuver from the behemoth area firm into enterprise investing. People leaving SpaceX to discovered different firms or spend money on them is common sufficient that there’s a web site devoted to connecting the 2 teams. Other notable traders within the SpaceX-to-VC pipeline embody Founders Fund’s Scott Nolan, who was a really early SpaceX worker, and Alpine Space Ventures’ Bulent Altan.