Has heard that former senior SpaceX executive Tom Ochinero is working on a new project with Achal Upadhyaya, who used to work at SpaceX and is now a venture capitalist, and Spencer Hemphill, who is one of Sequoia’s top finance leaders. The project is called Interlagos Capital.
Few public details are known about Interlagos, and the three did not answer TechCrunch’s request for comment. Officially, the company was formed in Delaware on March 7. It was also registered as an out-of-state business in California just a few days ago, on April 11. On the papers, Ochinero, Upadhyaya, and Hemphill are all named. The main home is in California, in El Segundo.
“Interlagos” was put forward as a trademark with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on April 4. The address on that application is the same as the one on the business register for the company. In the application, it says that the business will offer “venture capital services; venture capital funding services, namely, financing to new and emerging companies.”
After almost 10 years at SpaceX, where he rose to become senior vice president of commercial business, Ochinero left the company in February. In that job, he helped SpaceX become the clear world leader in commercial launch. At the time, people who knew about the situation told CNBC that Ochinero was quitting “to take care of a family medical matter.”
He will be working with Upadhyaya, who also used to work at SpaceX as an engineer for ten years before becoming a venture partner at the investment company Cantos in 2022. His LinkedIn page says he left sometime this year. At Cantos, Upadhyaya put money into startups run by former SpaceX employees, such as Apex Space, which makes satellite buses, and Salient Motion, which makes motion control systems.
Spencer Hemphill, a business executive, is the last person on the team. He’s coming from Sequoia, where he lived for 10 years too. He left the company as assistant manager sometime this year.
Also Read: Spacex Plans to Launch the Huge Starship for the Third Time Early Thursday Morning
Ochinero is the most recent high-level official from SpaceX to leave the huge company to work in venture capital. There is a website whose sole purpose is to bring together people who have left SpaceX to start new businesses or invest in them. Other well-known investors who went from working at SpaceX to starting their own company are Scott Nolan of Founders Fund and Bulent Altan of Alpine Space Ventures.
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