Building innovative funds in blockchain biz

There will be another VIR talk show on blockchain application on July 8, Photo: Shutterstock

Earlier this year William Do, CEO of Hobbit Investment, explained that exponential benefits and fast payback time are making blockchain projects a 4.0 trend that is replacing the wave of startups that flourished in previous years.

“The blockchain model with its transparent, speedy, and bold projects has solved the problems that pioneering startups of the past could not answer,” he said.

According to Do, just a handful of projects launched during the 2017-2020 entrepreneurship wave were able to establish themselves in the international market. The remainder struggled to survive without the support of major players in their industries.

In more recent times, Hobbit has successfully raised capital for blockchain game Fight of the Ages (FOTA), and Do will appear on a VIR talk show on July 8 to share his own personal experience as well as the general status of innovation funds for blockchain advances.

The talk show will welcome Hadi Malaeb, co-founder & CEO of Agora Group, who has worked with renowned organisations like the Dubai World Trade Centre, Aura Events, and Haykal Media. As a keen strategist with a passion for startup businesses and leading change, he will share his experiences on creating business opportunities that lead to rising profitability.

The event will also have the participation of leading blockchain enterprise representatives in Vietnam: V2B Labs, D.lion Media & Solutions, as well as international and local blockchain experts. The talk show will bring different perspectives on new investment trends in the blockchain field, as well as opportunities for Vietnamese startups when looking for long-term partners in a competitive market.

“The slice of cake now is so lucrative that project founders and angel investors are willing to set aside their self-interest and stand together. The stronger the relationship, the greater the mutual benefits,” explains Do.

Record inflows

A few days later, the 10th Global Blockchain Congress for Southeast Asia will take place in Hanoi on July 11-12 with the participation of 150 startup projects and investment funds from around the world. The conference is being organised by Agora Group, a unit with four years of experience in connecting global businesses and investors.

According to Tran Van Tung, Vietnam’s Deputy Minister of Science and Technology, there are a handful of businesses established by Vietnamese people in the top 200 companies and enterprises operating with blockchain technology.

Vietnamese tech unicorns have also begun to appear in the global blockchain market, most notably the Sky Mavis Axie Infinity game, which was able to successfully raise $150 million in a short time.

Elsewhere, Kyber Network technology has received $52 million from more than 21,000 large and small investors in more than 100 countries in its fundraising campaign.

That momentum has carried into this year, with 10 innovative Vietnamese blockchain startups successfully raising up to $100 million in capital.

Maintaining cohesion

The picture of Vietnam’s blockchain market is maintaining interest after the successful fundraising deals for a series of new names in the seed round, such as $8.3 million for FOTA, $7 million for Sipher, $2.4 million for Faral, and $2.5 million for the Aura Network.

Nguyen Manh Khoi, CEO of Koru Capital, said that Vietnam is a blockchain-friendly environment and also boasts fertile land with a large number of potential projects for them to choose and exploit.

“A lot of domestic and foreign investment funds are still waiting to put money into Vietnamese companies. There are funds that want to pour at least $10 million or more, but few Vietnamese companies can afford to absorb such large capital,” Khoi said.

Like other projects, startups in blockchain have to go through the stages of establishment, perfecting the product, and growing through a series of funding rounds. But Vietnam often does not have projects strong enough to reach later rounds in order to grasp the largest amount of capital.

However, Vietnam is still an attractive destination in the process of shifting investment flows in this field thanks to an increasingly favourable regulatory environment for blockchain, plus a young population, an abundant workforce, and a high number of internet users.

“Environmental factors contribute to 50 per cent of the win, the rest is the market and the target,” Khoi added.

From his experience in supporting capital raising for blockchain projects in Vietnam, Nguyen Thanh Nam, OneBlock Labs chairman, noted that investors often focus on the vision and cohesion of the project development team. They believe that these are values that form the future of the project, and at the same time help maximise profits.

“Even though the market has abnormal ups and downs, and there will be times of success and failure, the project will still have a lot of chances to succeed if it focuses on core values,” said Nam.