Fearless Fund files appeal in legal battle over Black women entrepreneurs' access to venture capital
Fearless Fund founders Arian Simone and Ayana Parsons are not allowing their efforts to combat racial inequality in access to venture capital to be derailed by ongoing litigation with the American Alliance for Equal Rights (AAER). Instead, they are continuing to fight back.
As previously reported by REVOLT, the conservative group filed a lawsuit in August alleging the fund was exercising discriminatory practices by excluding white and Asian women business owners from participating in their investment program, the Fearless Strivers Grant Contest.
Fearless Funds’ legal team, including prominent civil rights attorney Ben Crump, filed a brief in Georgia’s 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Dec. 6, countering claims that their organization violates Section 1981 of the Civil Rights Act of 1866. The fund’s mission is to bridge the gap between women of color entrepreneurs and capital funding.
“Women of color-owned businesses are a vital, growing sector to our economy yet received less than one percent of venture capital funding,” said Simone in a new statement. “Our legal team filed a brief in support of our First Amendment right to voice our view that these women of color-owned businesses need to be supported and that we are aligned with them through the Fearless Foundation’s Strivers Grant Program. We will fight fearlessly to protect these businesses, the dreams of their founders and our right to express this viewpoint, against any and all legal challenges.”
In October, the majority of a three-judge panel from the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a previous injunction allowing the Fearless Strivers Grant Contest, which awards $20,000 investments to winners, to continue operating.
While speaking on a panel during REVOLT WORLD weekend in September, Simone shared that Fearless Fund has “deployed over $26 million in the past few years… invested in over 41 businesses… awarded over 300 grants [and] done over $4 million in grant funding.” She added that AAER’s lawsuit is an attempt to stop “billions of dollars from getting into the hands of women and people of color.”
AAER founder Edward Blum is an activist who controversially led the charge for the Supreme Court to overturn affirmative action. The country’s high court reversed the 60-year-old legislation in June.
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