Blockchain startups widen scope to survive winter

Although some Vietnamese blockchain projects have been favourable in alluring capital flows from abroad in the past, CEO of D.lion Media & Solutions Jennie Hoang Phuong acknowledged that the fundraising market remains gloomy and many of D.lion’s partners have had to suspend brand-related activities in recent times.

Blockchain startups widen scope to survive winter, illustration photo/ shutterstock

“The journey to find and meet the right investors is not easy. There are projects where we have to prepare a fundraising roadmap a year in advance and undergo several dozen discussions with partners to achieve results,” said Phuong, a media consultant and development solutions provider for various blockchain projects.

Phuong said that in addition to the quality factor, investors always tend to evaluate the intrinsic value of the business through the founding team before making a decision. On the contrary, the projects do not want to only receive capital from investors, but also expect them to accompany and come up with a development roadmap to promote the brand to international reach in a short time.

According to Trinh Ngoc Duc, president of D.lion Holdings, project teams usually require around two years to negotiate and build a long-distance development roadmap for their idea.

“The vitality of a blockchain project only really begins after the funding round,” Duc said. “We always set a 3-5 year vision to ensure the project has enough time to develop and prove its existence in the market.”

In the last few months, while blockchain projects related to gamefi, cryptocurrency, and non-fungible tokens have come to a standstill due to the decline of the financial market and the controversial collapse of some exchanges, Hobbit Investment’s CEO William Do is constantly travelling between countries to set up new ventures.

Do insisted that he and his colleagues still believe in their products as well as the sustainability of the market because “quality products always have a chance to survive”.

“We were able to raise a substantial amount of money in the midst of the gamefi market starting to decline,” said Do.

Realising the dormant nature of much of the industry, Djinn Guild, part of the Hobbit Investment ecosystem, has been looking to build a gaming house in Ho Chi Minh City. The plan is to provide Southeast Asian gamers with a gym, movie room, bar, amusement park, and gaming area. It would also host esport tournaments for both traditional games and gamefi.

In addition, the facility would ideally display valuable character collection models, and iconic retro items such as lightsabers.

Djinn Guild was established to provide necessary solutions to projects that are struggling to find a way out for game publishers for both traditional games and for the blockchain market in particular.

Do said that Hobbit Investment is attempting to acquire other game publishing companies to merge into Djinn Guild, with the goal of developing a new blockchain game ecosystem.

Although he owns an investment fund, Do admitted that while Hobbit’s ecosystem is full of potential projects, he and his associates need more support from other investors to develop these ventures simultaneously.

Dubai is one location where such investors may be found. With an open legal corridor and abundant capital, Dubai is emerging as the next destination for capital-raising journeys. According to the city’s Metaverse Development Strategy, Dubai aims to increase the contribution of the metaverse sector to its economy to $4 billion by 2030 and increase its contribution to the emirate’s GDP to 1 per cent. It would also create 40,000 jobs and attract 1,000 companies specialising in blockchain and metaverse technology.

“Dubai may not be the start of many billion-dollar technology startups, but now, this is the place to be for top startups to set up their bases,” said Do.

Understanding the needs of investors and building trust with them is the key for Do and his associates to successfully raise capital for most projects, even new ones.

“Projects are not only chasing investors, but many investment funds are also thirsty for good quality initiatives. In that chase, the parties with the same goals and orientation will eventually find each other,” said Do.

South Korea and Vietnam to share blockchain know-how Last week, an event on tech cooperation between Vietnam and South Korea saw the participation of nearly 100 attendees, including experts, entrepreneurs, and investors.

Vietnam Blockchain Association and Foreign Trade University join forces The Vietnam Blockchain Association (VBA) has cooperated with the Hanoi Foreign Trade University (FTU) to hold a cooperation signing ceremony and discuss the role of blockchain in the digital economy in order to provide information and disseminate knowledge for students.