Spice Crypto VC Fund. A Review.

Overview:

  • Spice is a VC fund which will invest in Startups based in UK, Israel and Europe and also in ICOs.
  • Business model: Every business day Spice VC will analyse one pitch. The best weekly pitch will be analysed in more detail by the Spice VC Analysts. Every month one investment will be selected for funding.
  • Why is Spice VC called Spice? : Spice refers to the super dust in the sci-fi universe of Dune.

pre-ICO

  • Price: One SPiCE token will be priced at $1. Several discounts apply at pre-ICO and for bulk purchases.
  • Minimum Investment in pre-ICO: $200K in the US and $50K in the rest of the world.
    Lockup 6 months

Spice VC Opportunities

  • The general partners of Spice are seasoned industry professionals, they have a vast network of knowledge, expertise and contacts throughout many industries. The three GPs are
    • Carlos Domingo, formerly CEO of Telefonica R&D and New Business and Innovation at Telefonica Digital, and co-founder of Wayra;
    • Ami Ben David, a founder of four startups, a marketer and product innovator;
    • Tal Elyashiv, formerly CIO at Capital One and Bank of America, CTO of 888, founder of three startups and an angel investor.
  • Diversification: Spice VC will offer diversification in ICOs and startups involved in cutting-edge technology such as AI, AR/VR, IoT, cyber security, etc. This investment model is high risk – high reward. Several of these investments will fail but a few of them will grow exponentially and provide 10x returns. These technologies are set to reshape the world and if the money is set on the right enterprises the returns will be impressive, more than enough to compensate for the fees and losses.
  • Liquidity: Spice VC will have 5% of its tokens locked in Bancor, these will provide liquidity to the Spice token market. While standard VC investments are locked for multiple years. Spice tokens will provide easily accessible liquidity.
  • Security Token: A number of crypto funds already exist, however as of now, none of them has been officially recognized as a security.
  • The fund has identified a gap in the VC market, where startups who have grown between 1 million and 1.5 million do not attract enough interest from VCs. This gap can be exploited for a profit by Spice.

Spice General Observations:

  • 5% of the funds will be used to create liquidity. These funds will not be invested but will provide liquidity. On the one hand, this creates liquidity, on the other hand, these funds will not be invested and cannot grow.
  • An ERC20 Token is not the most user-friendly form of holding an investment, but  Institutional investors will benefit from high-quality custodian services of Spice VV tokens.

Spice Concerns:

  • pre-ICO structure: large investors will receive a 30% bonus of the investment. This has the advantage of incentivising large investors to contribute and guaranteeing that the soft cap is reached; however, the cost of this bonus will have absorbed by the smaller investors who do not receive such a bonus.
  • Geographical: 80% of investments will be focused on UK/Israel. These two countries are a known incubator for great tech startups, however, they come with their particular set of challenges. Startups usually are small and nimble enough to move jurisdictions if need be.
  • The fund will not invest in Asia and the USA two very important markets for startups.
  • Fees: A total of 10% of the fund value will go to management fees. When compounded over several years this can become a significant capital drain. This is even more important when considering that the returns on VC investments come after periods of 5 years plus.
  • At this time there is limited information on how the Startups and ICOs are going to be chosen by Spice VC and how they will be nurtured to success beyond financial funding. VCs tend to take roles in startups to ensure that their investment is a success.

Conclusion and Success criteria:

When the ICO market was younger, it was easy to pick and choose, today doing so on an individual basis is almost an impossible task. The GPs and Professional analysts employed by Spice VC will carry out this hard work on behalf of Spice VC investors. In addition, the leverage Spice VC will have in terms of funding will probably allow it to access ICO discounts not available to the retail investors.

Spice VC will exist in a very dynamic and volatile market. Cryptocurrencies and tokens are under the Regulatory scrutiny and broad regulations are expected in the future. This is part of the unknown – unknowns factor to investing in the cryptocurrency market. Spice VC will also be exposed to it.

Spice VC will be investing in startups developing technologies that change our way of life. These technologies have the potential to go exponential if they become usable. The competition in this market is extreme, this is why individual investors benefit from the acumen of seasoned investors and by spreading their investments across many startups.

The crypto fund fees are the price that investors are willing pay to have access to the leverage of Spice VC fund and investing excellence offered by the GPs (General Partners).

Spice is one of the few crypto funds I have analysed which as of the starting point the sum of the collective benefits outweigh the costs.

For more information please visit: http://www.spicevc.com