Alliance DAO

Alliance does not operate a traditional venture fund. It takes token warrants or small equity stakes in the startups admitted to its accelerator program, converting mentorship and network access into future carry. This means the DAO only profits when the companies it supports succeed, aligning incentives without requiring upfront capital from LPs.

Alliance DAO is the successor entity. DeFi Alliance was launched in 2020 as a specialist accelerator for decentralized finance startups. Following the 2022 merger with Qiao Wang's advisory group, the combined organization rebranded to Alliance DAO and broadened its mandate across the entire Web3 and crypto stack.

The organization is led by Imran Khan and Qiao Wang. Khan previously built and sold a consumer-tech startup and worked in trading at Deutsche Bank. Wang was a partner at Dragonfly Capital, a crypto-focused venture fund, before co-founding DeFi Alliance. Both operate as core contributors rather than titled general partners, reflecting the DAO's decentralized governance posture.

Admission is primarily referral-based. Founders typically enter the ecosystem through Alliance's vetted Slack community, which now counts over 5,000 members. Formal application windows open periodically for its 10-week accelerators, but the most common path is a direct introduction from an existing mentor, alumni founder, or core contributor.

The accelerator accepts either token warrants or equity in exchange for participation. The structure is negotiated on a per-company basis given that many early-stage Web3 startups may not have issued a token yet. This hybrid approach lets Alliance back pure-equity infrastructure plays as well as liquid-token protocols.