![]() ![]() Their combined share of venture capital rose above 1% for the first time, according to the 2022 Project Diane report from Digitalundivided.įearless Fund raised more than $25 million for its Fund I, and has so far raised about $16 million for its Fund II, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing from May. In 2021, record levels of funding for Latina and Black women improved things slightly. Fearless Fund aims to help bridge that gap. The disparity is especially true for businesses founded by Black women.īetween 20, only 0.0006% of VC funding went to businesses started by Black women, according to nonprofit advocacy group Digitalundivided. Venture capital funding for Black-owned startups is a fraction of what is invested in tech firms started by white-founders. ![]() “The conclusion seems to keep coming back to the fact that he thought they would be the easiest ones to pick off. Crump said he has been asked why the Fearless Fund was targeted, not other funds that may have a similar focus. Two other law firms as well as the National Women’s Law Center and the NAACP Legal Defense fund are consulting on the case. “I think that you’ll see this as part of a broader litigation theme or litigation strategy by anti-affirmative action, anti-DEI groups … to try to get rid of these programs in the private sector.”įearless Fund is being represented by Gibson Dunn & Crutcher, the Global Black Economic Forum and civil rights lawyer Ben Crump. “This lawsuit is part of a broader attempt to litigate the next wave of anti-affirmative action cases,” said Anthony Michael Kreis, an assistant professor of law at Georgia State University. ![]() In total, three white and Asian women business owners are part of the lawsuit, alleging the contest is “racially exclusive, thus violating our nation’s civil rights laws,” Blum said.īlum is also behind another group, Students for Fair Admissions, that successfully challenged affirmative action in college admissions policies. The program at the center of AAER’s lawsuit is the Fearless Strivers Grant Contest, which is being run in partnership with Mastercard, though the financial giant is not named as a defendant.Įdward Blum, president of AAER, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that his group was first contacted by a woman-owned business asking for legal representation to challenge Fearless Fund. The group also filed a motion for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction to stop the firm from closing the application period for the program or awarding grants as scheduled at the end of August.Įxplore Conservative group sues Black Atlanta VC firm for racial discriminationįearless Fund was founded in 2019 by three Black women: entrepreneur Arian Simone, organizational consultant Ayana Parsons and actress/businesswoman Keshia Knight Pulliam, who is best known as Rudy on “The Cosby Show.” The complaint says the conservative group “has members who are being excluded from the program because they are the wrong race.” AAER bills itself as a non-profit, membership-based organization “challenging distinctions and preferences based on race and ethnicity. 2, the American Alliance for Equal Rights (AAER) sued the Fearless Fund alleging that a program awarding $20,000 small business grants to Black women violates the Civil Rights Act of 1866. ![]()
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