Former senior SpaceX govt Tom Ochinero is teaming up with SpaceX alum-turned-VC Achal Upadhyaya and one among Sequoia’s prime finance leaders, Spencer Hemphill, on a brand new enterprise referred to as Interlagos Capital, TechCrunch has discovered.
There is little public info obtainable about Interlagos, and the trio didn’t reply to TechCrunch’s request for remark. The firm was formally included 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 tackle 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 tackle an identical 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 an almost 10-year stint on the firm, the place he ultimately turned senior vp of business enterprise. In that position, he helped SpaceX develop into the undisputed international lead in business launch. People conversant in the matter instructed 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 companion in 2022. He left someday this yr, in accordance with 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 govt, is rounding out the staff. He’s coming from Sequoia, the place he additionally spent 10 years. He departed someday this yr, leaving the agency as assistant controller.
Ochinero is simply the most recent SpaceX govt to maneuver from the behemoth area firm into enterprise investing. People leaving SpaceX to discovered different firms or put money into them is in style sufficient that there’s an internet site devoted to connecting the 2 teams. Other notable traders within the SpaceX-to-VC pipeline embrace Founders Fund’s Scott Nolan, who was a really early SpaceX worker, and Alpine Space Ventures’ Bulent Altan.
