Former top SpaceX exec Tom Ochinero sets up new VC firm, filings reveal

Former senior SpaceX government Tom Ochinero is teaming up with SpaceX alum-turned-VC, Achal Upadhyaya, and considered one of Sequoia’s high finance leaders, Spencer Hemphill, on a brand new enterprise referred to as Interlagos Capital, TechCrunch has realized.

There may be little public info accessible about Interlagos, and the trio didn’t reply to TechCrunch’s request for remark. The corporate was formally included 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 software for “Interlagos” was filed with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Workplace on April 4. That software lists an tackle an identical 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, specifically, offering financing to rising and start-up firms.”

Ochinero departed from SpaceX in February after an almost ten-year stint on the firm, the place he ultimately turned senior vice chairman of business enterprise. In that position, he helped SpaceX develop into the undisputed world lead in industrial launch. Folks accustomed to the matter told CNBC at 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 yr, in keeping with his LinkedIn. At Cantos, Upadhyaya’s bets included satellite tv for pc bus producer Apex House and movement management system developer Salient Movement, each startups headed by ex-SpaceX founders.

Spencer Hemphill, a finance government, is rounding out the workforce. He’s coming from Sequoia, the place he additionally spent ten years. He additionally departed someday this yr, 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 common sufficient for individuals to go away SpaceX to discovered different firms or put money into them that there’s a website dedicated to connecting the two groups. Different notable buyers within the SpaceX-to-VC pipeline embrace Founders Fund’s Scott Nolan, who was a really early SpaceX worker, and Alpine House Ventures’ Bulent Alton.