NEW YORK – One of the cofounders at an Atlanta venture capital firm, which supports women of color, has resigned as chief operating officer. The company is battling a lawsuit that has come to symbolize a conservative backlash towards corporate diversity programs.
Ayana parsons confirmed that she had resigned as general partner and chief operational officer of the Fearless Fund. She cofounded the fund in 2019 with Arian simone to address the wide disparity in funding of businesses owned by women of colour.
“I remain steadfast and committed in my support of Fearless Fund, and to the advancement for women and people of colour,” Parsons said Monday in a LinkedIn statement. “The best thing I can do is to focus boldly on new strategies and tactic. We need to create and implement alternatives if the courts will not allow us to use our best practices. We must innovate .”
The announcement came three weeks after the federal appeals panel suspended a grant competition for Black women entrepreneurs run by the Fearless Fund foundation. The American Alliance for Equal Rights is suing the Fearless Fund’s grant program. Edward Blum, a conservative activist who was behind the Supreme Court ruling that ended affirmative actions in college admissions, is leading the group. The three-judge panel, in a 2-1 decision, ruled that the lawsuit claiming the program to be discriminatory is likely to win.
Since its launch in 2019, the Fearless Fund has invested almost $27 million into 40 businesses run by women of color. This fund is backed by prominent companies such as J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. Bank of America and Mastercard. The Fearless Fund has invested in a number of companies, including the restaurant chain Slutty Vegan as well as Thirteen Lune – an ecommerce platform that promotes beauty products created by people from color.
Simone said that the Fearless Fund struggled to raise investment in the face of the lawsuit.
The lawsuit targets the Fearless Foundation’s Strivers Grant Contest which awards $20,000 in grants to Black women-owned businesses. Blum has claimed that the contest violates the Civil Rights Act of1866, which prohibits racial bias in contracts. Lawyers for Fearless Fund argue the grants are not contracts, but donations protected under the First Amendment.
In a statement released on Monday, Simone stated that Parsons “poured countless hours into advising a number of our portfolio companies.”
“We’re sorry to see her leave and wish her the best of luck in her new endeavors,” Simone stated.
Parsons and her husband cofounded Yardstick Management in 2000, a consulting company geared towards underrepresented business leaders. They sold it after 11 years, in 2023.
Parsons didn’t give a reason or explain what she was going to do next, but on her LinkedIn profile, she stated that she would “enjoy island life with my incredible family while continuing to fight and embody FREEDOM.”