Patrick Degorce, a co-founder and former top strategist at activist hedge fund The Children’s Investment Fund is managing money once again with the launch of his own hedge fund.

Degorce, who retired from TCI in January, unveiled his Theleme Partners in a “soft-launch” to avoid violating his non-compete agreement with TCI, which doesn’t expire until next year, the Financial Times reports. The fund is now up-and-running with about US$200 million in money from “friends and family.” When Degorce begins marketing the fund to outside investors next year, he hopes to raise as much as US$1 billion for the global equities fund.

Degorce played a major role in TCI’s financial services investments, including its highly-publicized activist battled with Dutch banking giant ABN Amro and Deutsche Börse. But he and TCI chief Christopher Hohn butted heads on several matters, including the size of TCI. Degorce, apparently, was not alone in that: Fellow TCI founding partner Snehal Amin quit in May with plans to strike out on his own next year, and the firm’s Asian chief, John Ho, left the firm in April.

Prior to co-founding TCI, Degorce worked at Merrill Lynch and served in the French navy.

Theleme plans to employ a “modified fee structure,” the FT reports, with charges related more closely to its performance. The new fund is something of a collaboration between Degorce and Lansdowne Partners: Theleme will be on Lansdowne’s platform and the new fund will use Lansdowne’s back-office and administrative support groups.