Zal Bilimoria has been a solo general partner since 2018 and has no plans to stop. And he credits the decision to his former colleague, David Lee, who started Refactor Capital with him in 2016.
He said he would not have been able to found the Burlingame-based company without Lee, a former Google executive who ran Ron Conway’s SV Angel venture fund for several years. Together, they raised a seed fund of $50 million. When Lee decided to retire in 2018, he wanted Bilimoria to stay Refactor as a solo GP.
Being a sole GP means having full authority to make investment decisions on your own, while also having full responsibility for things like fundraising. And while that level of freedom might sound great, it also means there are no established partners to talk to who can push back and make a VC scrutinize investment decisions in ways that might not have occurred to them. from the mind. While angel investors do this, they spend their own money. A sole investor invests on behalf of limited partners who trust that this person will grow their money.
“He convinced me to go solo, and this was at a time when solo GPs were not in vogue,” Bilimoria told TechCrunch. “He told me that since I love my independence and authority and I like spending time with founders, I should be left alone. I was very nervous, but the more I thought about it and talked to others, I realized that this was what I wanted to do and I haven’t looked back. I’ll be a single GP for the rest of my career if I can help it.”
Bilimoria is not without its own unique lineage. Before joining Refactor, Bilimoria spent nearly three years as a partner at Andreessen Horowitz, where he helped launch the firm’s $200 million Bio Fund. Prior to a16z, Bilimoria spent a decade building technology products at tech giants including Google, Netflix, LinkedIn and Microsoft. He was also the founder of consumer mobile startup Sniply.
With Refactor, he invests in companies that “solve the biggest challenges facing society,” he said. In fact, the term “refactor” comes from computer science and refers to improving the efficiency of code.
And being a solo GP hasn’t slowed down Bilimoria one bit. It went on to raise three additional funds and has now closed a fourth fund of $50 million in capital commitments for investments in biotech, climate and hard-tech startups.
Since launching in 2016, Refactor has invested in more than 100 companies, four of which have gone on to become unicorns, including Solugen, which uses synthetic biology to remove hydrocarbons from the chemical industry, and Astranis, which makes microsatellites.
Last week, Solugen received one $214 million loan from the Department of Energy’s Office of Loan Programs to build their next Solugen Bioforge in Minnesota that will produce chemicals from corn sugar rather than petroleum. Awarded to a small number of startups, the DOE a similar loan to Tesla in 2010.
Bilimoria was able to raise the new fund in less than 90 days, he said. Ninety percent of the capital was raised by existing limited partners, including firms such as Knollwood Investment Advisory. The majority of LPs are institutional investors and the entire group of LPs are US investors.
“I feel very lucky to have this LP band,” he said. “I’ve been chasing an institutional investor for the last four funds and finally put them in this fund, so they’re part of my new 10%.
Bilimoria is completing investments from the third fund, but has already committed some capital from the fourth fund.
This new fund will continue to lead pre-seed and seed investments in startups working in areas including new battery technologies, cancer treatments, IVF developments and chemicals. Check sizes are typically between $1 million and $2 million and will be distributed to between 20 and 25 companies over the next three years, Bilimoria said.
