Zal Bilimoria has been a solo normal accomplice 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 in a position to begin the Burlingame-based agency with out Lee, a former Google govt 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 needed 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 accountability for issues like fundraising. And whereas that stage of freedom would possibly sound fantastic, it additionally implies that there are not any vested companions to discuss with, who push again and make a VC scrutinize funding selections in methods that won’t have occurred to them. Whereas angel buyers do that, they’re spending their very own cash. A sole investor is investing on behalf of restricted companions who’re entrusting that this particular person 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 advised 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 almost three years as a accomplice 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 shopper cellular startup Sniply.
With Refactor, he’s investing in firms “solving the biggest challenges facing society,” he stated. The truth is, 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 boost three extra 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 exhausting tech startups.
Since its 2016 launch, Refactor has invested in over 100 firms, of which 4 have gone on to grow to be unicorns, together with Solugen, which is utilizing artificial biology to take hydrocarbons out of the chemical compounds trade and Astranis, which is making micro satellites.
Final week, Solugen obtained a $214 million mortgage from the Division of Power Mortgage Packages Workplace to construct their subsequent Solugen Bioforge in Minnesota that can make chemical compounds from corn sugar reasonably than petroleum. Awarded to a small variety of startups, the DOE awarded an analogous mortgage to Tesla in 2010.
Bilimoria was in a position to 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 buyers, and the whole LP group is U.S. buyers.
“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 guide pre-seed and seed investments into startups working in areas, together with novel battery applied sciences, most cancers therapies, IVF developments and chemical compounds. Verify sizes are usually $1 million to $2 million, and shall be break up between 20 and 25 firms over the subsequent three years, Bilimoria stated.
