Alongside, a crypto index-focused platform, has closed an $11 million seed round led by a16z. Investors in the round include Coinbase Ventures, Franklin Templeton Investments, Village Global and Not Boring Capital, as well as angel investors.
Last month, the startup launched its first product, the Alongside Crypto Market Index ($AMKT). The token is "fully collateralized by the top 25 assets in crypto," weighted by market capitalization. However, the top 25 excludes stablecoins and crypto assets with "questionable security status". All the assets are backed 1:1 by the underlying index components and "securely custodied by Coinbase".
In the future, Alongside will consider launching different products centered around DeFi as a category or layer-2 blockchains as a category, said Diamond, co-founder of Alongside.