BlockchainWork closes $142K seed extension from Japanese strategic investors
What's the deal? BlockchainWorkDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, a Vietnamese blockchain recruitment platform, has closed a $142,000 seed 2 round from four Japanese strategic investors. Three of the four backed the company's $87,000 seed 1 round in 2024. Founded in 2021 by a Vietnamese-Japanese team, the Ho Chi Minh City-based startup connects over 20,000 candidates with employers in the blockchain and Web3 space.
The funds will go toward three priorities: expanding its candidate and employer network, integrating AI into its matching and operations, and building international partnerships focused on Japan and Singapore.
Why now? Vietnam's regulatory landscape shifted in blockchain's favour in 2025. In September 2025, the government issued a resolution authorising a five-year pilot programme for crypto markets. A new digital technology law, effective 2026, formally classifies digital assets as digital property — creating the country's first legal sandbox for the sector.
The timing matters for hiring. According to BlockchainWork's 2025 jobs report, non-technical roles — marketing, business development, community, operations — account for 53.4% of all blockchain positions in Vietnam. The industry is moving from infrastructure-building to commercialisation, and it needs people to match.
Vietnam ranks fourth globally in crypto adoption, with about 17.4% of its population holding digital assets. Its crypto market hit roughly $9.97B in 2024.
What could go wrong? The round is tiny — $142,000 is modest even by Southeast Asian seed standards. Scaling an AI-enhanced recruitment platform across borders on that budget will be a challenge. The blockchain jobs market remains volatile and closely tied to crypto cycles; a downturn could shrink both employer demand and investor appetite quickly.
Specialist blockchain developers make up just 11.7% of technical hires in Vietnam, highlighting a persistent skills gap that no single platform can solve alone.
The signal: The global blockchain market is projected to surge from $57.7 billion in 2025 to over $1.4 trillion by 2030, yet specialised blockchain developers account for just 11.7% of technical hires in Vietnam — a gap that underpins BlockchainWork's niche. The repeat commitment from Japanese strategic investors points to a deeper play: Japan, with one of Asia's most developed Web3 regulatory frameworks, has long relied on Vietnam as a top IT outsourcing partner, and that pipeline is now extending into blockchain talent as the sector's hiring shifts from purely technical roles toward commercialisation functions.
Read more: prtimes.jp
