Interlagos, the venture capital firm launched by former senior SpaceX leaders, is raising $550 million for its first venture fund, according to regulatory filings and a confidential deck sent to prospective limited partners and viewed by TechCrunch.

The existence of the firm was first reported by TechCrunch in April, but nearly nothing has been publicly released about its proposed investment thesis — until today. El Segundo, California-based Interlagos is widely focusing its targets toward startups across "deep tech" sectors, one source familiar with the firm's plans said. The firm will invest in capital beginning at inception through Series B, with the targeted $550 million to be distributed across 26-32 investments, the deck says.

It's a massive objective for the very first fund; the team knows it. "We are sized to lead and be persistent capital partners to leading companies," the pitch deck says.

While the filing does not yet specify how much the partners have raised so far, one source in the know said that the firm has secured first close on part of this $550 million target. LP prospects are probably drawn to the credentials of its founding team, including Achal Upadhyaya, who spent a decade working as a senior engineer at SpaceX, and later led investments in space and defence at Cantos Ventures; Tom Ochinero, former executive at SpaceX who left the company last month after a decade; and Spencer Hemphill, CFO of Interlagos. He is former lead of finance at Sequoia. The general partners also will have their own skin in the game—quite a common structure for VC firms.

They said they each have committed to invest a 2% general partner "commit," the deck says, referring to their own personal money they commit to the fund as investors. The other terms of the fund seem standard industry fare: 2 percent management fees; carry of 20-25 percent, which is how much the fund will retain of its returns; a pursuit of deals that will give it 18-25 percent stakes in the startups it backs. Ochinero, who reported directly to SpaceX president Gwynne Shotwell, was "personally responsible for over a billion dollars of annual revenue" at the company, according to a bio published in 2023. Upadhyaya in particular has a sweeping track record into deep tech startups as an angel and VC, according to the deck: He led the first investments into unmanned defense systems startup Neros Technologies and quantum mechanics startup SoloPulse, and the seed rounds into Shinkei Systems and Pilgrim, in his role at Cantos.

Among his personal investments include composites startup Layup and Oxide Computer. Upadhyaya did not have a comment for TechCrunch's request by publication time.

VC interest in deep tech has been building steam in recent years-yes, that's an umbrella term in sectors like space, manufacturing, robotics, biotech, AI, and more.

Deep tech companies require more upfront capital and usually take much longer to exit, which has resulted in an increasing number of specialist funds, usually technical partners. Still, if Interlagos can raise the full amount targeted, that would be one of those exceptions to the recent downturn in VC that made raising capital more difficult. It will ensure that the firm is well set up to compete against the mega-funds like Founders Fund and Andreessen Horowitz, which aggressively shifted into the earliest stages in deep tech VC deals.