Women of Color are the Most Founded Demographic But the Least Funded (Interview)

Arian Simone built the "Fearless Fund," a venture capital fund intended to support women of color. Simone details her legal battle to keep the fund alive and shares more about her book "Fearless Freedom: A Manifesto for Unlocking Wealth and Equality for All."

Simone says, "Women of color are the most founded demographic but the least funded."

Listen to the interview. 

Helping Black Women Entrepreneurs Start and Expand a Business

A growing number of firms have opened their treasure chests to Black woman entrepreneurs. They, in turn, are often using the financing to help other Black women start or expand a business.

The median seed funding raised by a Black woman founder is $125,000, nowhere near the national median of $2.5 million in 2020, according to ProjectDiane. In the first half of 2021, Crunchbase data revealed that only 0.34% of capital went to businesses run by Black women.

The article for Black Enterprise Magazine goes on to say that more efforts are surfacing to provide funding to Black women, or people of color in general, such as the Goldman Sachs’ One Million Black Women initiative, Fortune reported. One firm that is seeing the capital flowing steadily is the Fearless Fund, which works to increase Black representation in venture capital and support women of color.

The Fearless Fund for Black Women Entrepreneurs

A $5 million venture capital fund to support startups created by women of color has been launched by Actress Keshia Knight Pulliam.  She has teamed with entrepreneur Arian Simone to make this happen.

“The Fearless fund is designed to change the narrative as it relates to funding allocated to women of color,” says Simone.

Read more about the venture capital fund for black women entrepreneurs.