Imran Khan

Imran Khan is a United States–based venture investor and the co-founder and a General Partner of Alliance (also known as AllianceDAO), a crypto accelerator and founder community.^[1] He has worked in crypto since the early 2010s, holding roles across trading-market relationships, decentralized finance (DeFi), and web3 startup acceleration.^[2]​

Education

Khan holds a Bachelor of Science in Business from Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, which he completed Magna Cum Laude.^[4]

Career

Microsoft and Entry into Crypto

Before entering venture investing, Khan worked at Microsoft.^[2] He has said he entered crypto around 2013, when he invested in Bitcoin, participated in the Ethereum initial coin offering (ICO), and undertook an early project for Coinbase. ^[2]​

Volt Capital

Khan has said that after leaving Microsoft he and a partner, Soona, launched Volt Capital, where he served as a Venture Partner.^[2] He has described Chicago, where the trading industry is concentrated, as home to roughly 60% of the world's market makers, naming firms such as Jump Trading and Cumberland as early crypto adopters that began working with digital assets as early as 2012 and 2013.^[2]​

Alliance

Khan is a co-founder of Alliance, which he joined in February 2020 and where he serves as a General Partner.^[4]​^[1] The organization began as the Chicago DeFi Alliance, which Khan has said launched in early 2020, and later operated as DeFi Alliance before transitioning to Alliance DAO.^[2] Alliance is described as a crypto accelerator and founder community that provides daily one-to-one mentorship, direct support from veteran crypto founders, and context drawn from hundreds of startups it has mentored.^[4] The company states it offers $350,000 in funding to admitted startups and extends interview invitations within two weeks of application.^[4]​

Khan has explained that DeFi Alliance's program objectives were to help DeFi protocols scale, connect them with market makers, address regulatory concerns, provide product feedback, and help bootstrap networks and communities.^[2]

Interviews

Khan was the guest on an episode of The Inquisitive VC, a podcast hosted by Nawaz Ahmed, titled "Imran Khan - AllianceDAO." The episode, which runs 34 minutes and 57 seconds, was published on March 11, 2022, and covered his entry into crypto, the evolution from DeFi Alliance to Alliance DAO, his criteria for selecting startups, and his views on DAOs, DeFi, and NFTs.^[2] In October 2025, Khan reposted a June interview that Alliance conducted with Nikhil of Union Square Ventures (USV), writing that USV had been "an incredible force for the New York and broader tech scene" and praising how the firm operates, thinks, and invests.^[3] Through Alliance's channels he has also profiled portfolio founders, including the team behind Smart Strategies, an onchain investment-tools company founded by former staff of Certora, and The Tailgate App.^[3]​