Former SpaceX senior executive Tom Ochinero is partnering with SpaceX alum turned VC Achal Upadhyaya and one of Sequoia's top financial leaders, Spencer Hemphill, in a new company called Interlagos Capital, TechCrunch has learned.
There is little public information available about Interlagos and the trio did not respond to TechCrunch's request for comment. The company was formally incorporated in the state of Delaware on March 7 and registered as an out-of-state company in California just a few days ago, on April 11. Ochinero, Upadhyaya and Hemphill are named in the documents. The main address is in El Segundo, California.
On April 4, a trademark application for “Interlagos” was filed with the United States Patent and Trademark Office. That request includes an address identical to the one found in the company's business record. The application 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 stint at the company, where he eventually became senior vice president of commercial business. In that role, he helped SpaceX become the undisputed global leader in commercial launches. People familiar with the matter. he told CNBC at the time that Ochinero was resigning “to attend to a family medical matter.”
With Interlagos, he is teaming up with another SpaceX alum, Upadhyaya, who spent a decade in engineering roles at SpaceX before joining investment firm Cantos as a venture partner in 2022. He left sometime this year, according to your LinkedIn. At Cantos, Upadhyaya's bets included satellite bus maker Apex Space and motion control systems developer Salient Motion, both startups run by former SpaceX founders.
Spencer Hemphill, a financial executive, completes the team. He comes from Sequoia, where he also spent 10 years. He left sometime this year, leaving the company as assistant controller.
Ochinero is just the latest SpaceX executive to transition from the giant space company into venture investing. People leaving SpaceX to found or invest in other companies are popular enough that there is a website dedicated to connecting the two groups. Other notable investors in the SpaceX-to-VC process include Founders Fund's Scott Nolan, who was an early SpaceX employee, and Alpine Space Ventures' Bulent Altan.
