The adventures of young rookies at D.lion

D.lion’s ecosystem makes partners’ value and business performance skyrocket

Created in 2021, D.lion is inspired by the dandelion with a strong vitality, free-floating in the wind. The resilience and robustness of the dandelion is the guideline that makes D.lion become one of the first private corporations in Vietnam to own a diverse ecosystem in the field of blockchain games, which includes HOBBIT Investment, Fight Of The Ages (FOTA), and a number of other fields that will be researched and expanded in the future.

Unlike beautiful stories often seen in many startup projects, the idea of founding D.lion Group was rekindled from the traumatic failures of young people who had just turned 30, who were full of enthusiasm and bold ideas and who never gave up.

As professional employees, they quickly became close partners when they found the same point of view and vision, and achieved certain successes in the field they pursued. The far-reaching restrictions of the past few years became a turning point, connecting them to build an empire after each encountered setbacks at the start of their careers.

A richer experience

D.lion’s journey officially started under the guidance of the three founding members of Trinh Ngoc Duc, Jennie Hoang Phuong, and Luzz Nguyen.

Initially, D.lion was founded from the desire to create a home for close associates who have been with them while the job market faced challenges from the pandemic. This also became a home for young people who are passionate about technology, or who want to work in finance and marketing but lack a professional playground to try and learn.

The available experience in the blockchain field, along with a quick grasp of new market trends, are the reasons why the founders of D.lion decided to choose GameFi as a long-term development strategy in the future.

“Vietnam is one of the countries with a fairly large and diverse gamer population. However, the skills of local gamers remain untapped. GameFi not only offers a much richer experience than traditional games but also provides opportunities for personal financial development for gamers and their projects,” said CEO Jennie Hoang Phuong.

After defining the product and strategy, the founding team began to perfect the ecosystem, providing a full range of services for businesses operating in game startups following the principle of utilising short-term goals as stepping stones towards achieving long-term ones.

D.lion consists of a company that specialises in GameFi research and development; an investment fund with the role of raising capital and ensuring financial solutions for a favourable product launch; and a company providing advanced communications solutions for businesses, projects, and partners as well as the products developed by D.lion Group.

Phuong used to work in training and human resource management, so people are always an important factor and a top priority for her. Fortunately, each piece of the board of directors has become an indispensable factor in the operation of the overall apparatus.

“We have a strategic development expert with flawless judgment, and an operations specialist standardising every process from the very beginning. In addition, we also have a person who is able to build a strong network of relationships, ensuring the smooth flow of capital,” Phuong explained.

Despite being confident in its committed and high-quality staff, D.lion still faces many challenges in the startup sector, especially as the nascent GameFi market in Vietnam still lacks the protection of the legal corridor.

No land for dreamers

Chairman Trinh Ngoc Duc shared that one of the strengths of startup projects is that they are full of ideas, but lack information about the market. Initial success stories that are published in the press, combined with overconfidence in the product, lead many startups to believe that countless investment funds will come to them.

But finance is an area that always requires alertness. Lack of thinking about long-term vision and strategy only puts projects at risk, even dying right from the fundraising journey before launching the product, according to Duc.

Therefore, all projects developed by D.lion must go through a rigorous appraisal process by D.lion Media & Solutions, the group’s media solution provider. A team of six members examines the project in terms of marketing strategy, ability to raise capital, and long-term development quality, among other factors. “It is also a way for us to reflect on ourselves and prepare more carefully for a sustainable game,” emphasised Duc.

This meticulousness right from the start has helped D.lion’s projects quickly gain the trust of individual investors. Up to now, FOTA, the first GameFi title developed by D.lion, has attracted investment of up to $8.3 million.

The fast growth rate is also the driving force for D.lion’s determination to convert from the joint-stock company model to a corporation model. In the future, D.lion’s ecosystem is expected to develop in at least eight directions with a total of 21 different branches, including a human resource training academy on games, healthcare services, entertainment, financial services, retail, and much more. Each direction and each branch, although possessing different strengths, has complementary responsibilities to promote the development of the group’s ecosystem.

Claiming to be an ambitious startup project, the desire of the founding members of D.lion is not only to achieve success in a risky new game but also to build a solid alliance, where each partner that accompanies them can resonate with each other. This cooperation can help D.lion and its partners develop faster and more sustainably, shorten the testing process, and gain trust and collective wisdom in the shortest time.

Trinh Ngoc Duc - Chairman, D.lion Group Right from its beginning, D.lion immediately picked up the trend when participating in the blockchain game market with the ambition to reach out to the world. D.lion has taken advantage of the full potential of marketing and cheap human resources in Vietnam to bring quintessence into projects. But we also face many challenges during operation process as there is not a clear legal framework for digital currency projects. Meanwhile, traditional funds tend to choose projects that are guaranteed and recognised by the state to minimise possible risks, even though they are venture capital funds. Another difficulty is that blockchain-related information has not yet been widely disseminated in Vietnam, and the appearance of a series of fraudulent projects in the past time has made people suspicious and hesitant before participating in new projects. Vietnam has a large gaming community of all ages, but not everyone can easily adapt to a new trend. Reaching and bringing new opportunities in the GameFi market still takes a lot of time and effort to change the perception of gamers. Human resources is another challenge that cannot be ignored. The rapid development of blockchain has led to an increase in the number of developers in the market; however, the number of developers who can understand the power of blockchain is small. Because of the scarcity of blockchain developers, the application to the blockchain is not in a continuous chain, making the development of a product easily interrupted, with many potential projects left open. On the other hand, blockchain organisations in Vietnam have been born, but their activities are not really supporting each other in order to develop together. Jennie Hoang Phuong - CEO, D.lion Group The intense passion, perseverance, and consensus of each individual in the team are the driving forces for our development. At the time of entering the blockchain market, D.lion was merely a collection of individuals with not-so-excellent experience in a potential but risky and competitive market. We are always confident in each member’s efforts and ability to adapt to market fluctuations. This has been proven very clearly during the past year when D.lion conquered many large and small projects and accumulated a lot of valuable experience to be able to reap achievements. Each project is a testament to the successful cooperation of D.lion and its partners. With the goal of expanding the ecosystem and network to connect domestic and international businesses, D.lion always puts cooperation results first and this factor has contributed to increasing the company’s reputation.