Zal Bilimoria has been a solo basic companion since 2018, and has no plans to cease. And he credit the choice to former colleague, David Lee, who began Refactor Capital with him in 2016.
He stated that he wouldn’t have been capable of begin the Burlingame-based agency with out Lee, a former Google government who ran Ron Conway’s seed-stage enterprise fund SV Angel for a number of years. Collectively, they raised an preliminary $50 million fund. When Lee determined to retire in 2018, he wished Bilimoria to stick with Refactor as a solo GP.
Being a solo GP means having full authority to make funding selections alone whereas additionally having full duty for issues like fundraising. And whereas that stage of freedom would possibly sound great, it additionally signifies that there are not any vested companions to check with, who push again and make a VC scrutinize funding selections in methods that won’t have occurred to them. Whereas angel traders do that, they’re spending their very own cash. A sole investor is investing on behalf of restricted companions who’re entrusting that this individual will make their cash develop.
“He convinced me to stay solo, and that was at a time when solo GPs were not in vogue,” Bilimoria informed TechCrunch. “He told me that since I love my independence and authority and love spending time with founders, I should stay solo. I was super nervous, but the more I spent thinking about it and talking to other folks, I realized that was going to be what I wanted to do, and I have not looked back. I am going to be a solo GP for the rest of my career, if I can help it.”
Bilimoria isn’t with out his personal distinctive pedigree. Earlier than becoming a member of Refactor, Bilimoria spent practically three years as a companion at Andreessen Horowitz, the place he helped get the agency’s $200 million Bio Fund off the bottom. Previous to a16z, Bilimoria spent a decade constructing tech merchandise at tech giants, together with Google, Netflix, LinkedIn and Microsoft. He was additionally the founding father of client cell startup Sniply.
With Refactor, he’s investing in corporations “solving the biggest challenges facing society,” he stated. In truth, the time period “refactor” comes from laptop science and refers to creating code extra environment friendly.
And being a solo GP hasn’t slowed Bilimoria a bit. He went on to lift three further funds and has now closed a fourth fund of $50 million in capital commitments to put money into the areas of biotech, local weather and laborious tech startups.
Since its 2016 launch, Refactor has invested in over 100 corporations, of which 4 have gone on to develop into unicorns, together with Solugen, which is utilizing artificial biology to take hydrocarbons out of the chemical substances trade and Astranis, which is making micro satellites.
Final week, Solugen acquired a $214 million mortgage from the Division of Vitality Mortgage Packages Workplace to construct their subsequent Solugen Bioforge in Minnesota that can make chemical substances from corn sugar somewhat than petroleum. Awarded to a small variety of startups, the DOE awarded an identical mortgage to Tesla in 2010.
Bilimoria was capable of increase the brand new fund in lower than 90 days, he stated. Ninety p.c of the fund was raised by present restricted companions, together with companies like Knollwood Funding Advisory. A majority LPs are institutional traders, and all the LP group is U.S. traders.
“I feel very lucky to have this LP group,” he stated. “I was chasing one institutional investor for the last four funds, and I finally got them into this fund, so they’re part of my new 10%.”
Bilimoria is wrapping up investments from the third fund, however has already dedicated some capital from the fourth fund.
This new fund will proceed to steer pre-seed and seed investments into startups working in areas, together with novel battery applied sciences, most cancers therapies, IVF developments and chemical substances. Test sizes are usually $1 million to $2 million, and will probably be break up between 20 and 25 corporations over the following three years, Bilimoria stated.
