Alliance
2026-09-01alliance.xyz
Overview
What they do
Founded in 2020 by Imran Khan, Qiao Wang, and Jacob Franek, Alliance (formerly DeFi Alliance) has grown into the premier accelerator for the cryptocurrency and Web3 ecosystem. Often considered the "Y Combinator of Crypto," the firm operates a highly selective 10-week program that combines in-person onboarding in New York City with remote mentorship. Alliance is distinctive for its massive, decentralized founder community (Alliance DAO), which includes over 400 industry leaders, liquidity providers, lawyers, and auditors who actively support portfolio companies. The firm has built a stellar reputation for incubating multi-billion dollar projects and guiding founders through intense product-market fit discovery.
alliance.xyz
What they look for
Alliance focuses on accelerating the top 1% of Web3, crypto, and AI founders. Their core thesis is that founder quality matters vastly more than the initial idea. As co-founder Qiao Wang notes, "half the cohort pivots anyway," so the firm indexes heavily on "extreme drive," resilience, and technical capability. They look for technical co-founding teams (ideally 2-3 people) who have a long-standing relationship to help them survive bear markets. Crucially, they demand "lived experience" in crypto-founders who actively use the technology and have personally felt the problems they are trying to solve.
alliance.xyz
Stage
Pre-seed, Seed, Series A
alliance.xyz
Sectors
Fintech, AI, Consumer, Deeptech
alliance.xyz
Based
Chicago, New York City, US
alliance.xyz
Sources
2026-09-01alliance.xyzALL19 Application Early Admission September 23 Interview invites sent within 1 week of…
Portfolio, cheque size and the rest
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