Early-stage venture firm SpiceCapital.xyz, led by Forbes-featured founder Maya Bakhai, focuses on pre-seed and seed investments

SpiceCapital.xyz – GoDaddy customer – (United States) 

Forward-thinking investment firms use .xyz domains to highlight their role in emerging technology ecosystems. VC firm Infinite.xyz backs decentralized networks and deep tech innovation, from Ethereum to Tesla. VC firm GenVentures.xyz invests in machine economy projects across AI, DePIN, and blockchain. VC firm Nascent.xyz supports early-stage crypto projects. In this week’s #WebsiteWednesday, we’ll introduce you to a VC firm focused on pre-seed and seed-stage investments across blockchain, creator-focused platforms, vertical software, and applied AI: SpiceCapital.xyz.

Early-stage venture firm SpiceCapital.xyz supports pre-seed and seed founders

SpiceCapital.xyz is the online home of Spice Capital, a New York–based venture capital firm focused on pre-seed and seed-stage investments. Founded in 2021, Spice Capital backs founders building in areas the firm believes are positioned for significant change over the coming decades. According to its website, the firm looks to partner with teams early, often before markets are clearly defined. It describes this approach as taking “big bets” on emerging categories. Spice Capital typically invests between $250,000 and $500,000 and works closely with founders at the earliest stages of company formation.

A thesis centered on cultural arbitrage and emerging categories

Spice Capital frames its investment approach around “cultural arbitrage,” a concept it uses to describe identifying shifts in technology, behavior, and culture before they become widely recognized. According to the firm, it focuses on founders operating ahead of established market maps, believing that once categories are clearly defined, opportunities may already be crowded.

Current focus sectors outlined on SpiceCapital.xyz include blockchain and fintech (with an emphasis on consumer-facing financial tools), the creator economy (supporting creators as businesses), vertical software designed for specific communities or industries, and applied AI aimed at improving how people work and play. Across these areas, the firm positions itself as an early partner to teams exploring new models rather than making incremental improvements to existing ones.

Investing in emerging consumer and crypto platforms: Daylight.xyz and Genesis.xyz

The firm’s portfolio includes early-stage investments across consumer-facing blockchain applications, social platforms, and software products shaped by changing online behaviors. According to SpiceCapital.xyz, the firm supports founders building new categories at the intersection of finance, community, and digital ownership, often before clear market definitions have formed. Investment examples include :

• Daylight.xyz – Daylight is described as an onchain transaction platform and discovery engine designed to surface relevant mints, claims, quests, and other blockchain activities directly within wallets and applications such as MetaMask, Coinbase Wallet, Zerion, and OKX. According to the website, the product aims to help users discover onchain actions while enabling apps to engage audiences through personalized recommendations.
• Genesis.xyz – Genesis is building what it describes as a next-generation social network centered on digital ownership. The project explores how identity, content, and ownership can interact within online communities, aligning with broader shifts toward creator-driven and user-owned social platforms.

These examples illustrate how Spice Capital participates in a broader group of early-stage technology companies exploring new consumer experiences across crypto, social, and software ecosystems.

A woman-led venture firm guided by Maya Bakhai

Spice Capital is led by Maya Bakhai, Founder and General Partner. Maya was named to Forbes 30 Under 30 – Venture Capital (2023), recognizing her work backing early-stage founders across capital, crypto, and community-driven businesses.¹ She earned a B.S. in finance, computing, and data science from New York University’s Stern School of Business, and previously worked at PricewaterhouseCoopers before entering venture capital. According to LinkedIn, Maya founded the firm in October 2021 after previously leading early-stage investments at Thirty Five Ventures, the venture firm backed by Kevin Durant and Rich Kleiman. During that time, she supported investments in companies including machine learning platform Hugging Face, fintech company Mercury, digital asset marketplace OpenSea, wearable tech company Whoop, and software development company Dapper Labs. As shared in the press, Maya founded Spice Capital with the goal of bringing new perspectives into venture investing and identifying opportunities that traditional firms may overlook.²

SpiceCapital.xyz: Reflecting a domain upgrade aligned with early-stage innovation

Spice Capital upgraded their domain from spicecapital.vc to the more modern SpiceCapital.xyz. .XYZ is widely used by startups, investors, and builders working across emerging technologies, making it a natural fit for a firm focused on early-stage and category-defining companies. SpiceCapital.xyz also supports clarity and findability for founders, partners, and researchers looking to learn more about the firm. You can learn more by following the firm on X/Twitter and LinkedIn and by visiting SpiceCapital.xyz.