Former SpaceX executive Tom Ochinero is teaming up with SpaceX VC-turned-VC Achal Upadhyaya and one of Sequoia’s top finance leaders, Spencer Hemphill, in a new venture called Interlagos Capital, according to TechCrunch.
There is little public information available about Interlagos, and the trio did not respond to TechCrunch’s request for comment. The company was officially incorporated in the state of Delaware on March 7th and registered as an out-of-state corporation in California a few days ago on April 11th. Ochinero, Upadhyaya and Hemphill are named in the documents. The main address is in El Segundo, California.
A trademark application for “Interlagos” was filed with the US Patent and Trademark Office on April 4. This application states an address identical to that found in the company’s business registration. The filing states that the company will engage in “venture capital services. venture capital financing services, namely, providing financing to emerging and start-up companies’.
Ochinero left SpaceX in February after a nearly 10-year tenure at the company, eventually becoming senior vice president of commercial operations. In this role, he helped SpaceX grow into the undisputed world leader in commercial launch. People familiar with the matter he told CNBC at the time that Ochinero resigned “to attend to a family medical matter.”
With Interlagos, he’s partnered with another SpaceX stalwart — Upadhyaya — who spent a decade in engineering roles at SpaceX before joining investment firm Cantos as a business partner in 2022. He left sometime this year, according to his LinkedIn. At Cantos, Upadhyaya’s bets included satellite shuttle maker Apex Space and motion control system developer Salient Motion, both startups led by former SpaceX founders.
Spencer Hemphill, finance executive, rounds out the team. He comes from Sequoia, where he also spent 10 years. He left sometime this year, leaving the company as an assistant controller.
Ochinero is just the latest SpaceX executive to move from the grandiose space company to venture capital. People leaving SpaceX to start or invest in other companies is quite popular a website dedicated to connecting the two groups. Other notable investors in the SpaceX-to-VC pipeline include Scott Nolan of Founders Fund, who was a very early employee of SpaceX, and Bulent Altan of Alpine Space Ventures.
