The Tory Burch Foundation this past September committed to helping women of color entrepreneurs by funding a grant program in partnership with the Fearless Fund that would give each woman entrepreneur a grant in the range of $10,000- $20,000.
This past week the organizations announced the following women of color entrepreneurs who are grant recipients:
- Chrishon Lampley, LoveCorkScrew
- Catarah Coleman, Southern Girl Desserts
- Kelli Ulrey, Pretty Please Teethers
- Simonne Smith, 2 Girls and our Trucks
- Lavida Samuel, Elle Vie Body Products
- Chanel Holland, Chocolate Ballerina Company
- Damaris Hollingsworth, Design by Melo
- Shanita Nicholas, Sip & Sonder
- Nicole Lovelace, PRMPB Brow and Beauty Studio
- Keya Martin, Keeyahri
- Mignon Williams, Tyler Tax Service
- Eniola Oshodi, DOPESCRUBS
- Mariloly Orozco, Little Postage House
- Arion Long, Femly
- LaTeasha Gaither-Davis, Therapeutic Focus
Venture capital firm Fearless Fund invests in women of color led businesses in the areas of pre-seed, seed level or series A financing. The founders of the Fund seek to address the un-level playing field that is supported by studies showing that female founders perform 63% better on average than all-male founding teams (FIRST ROUND CAPITAL, 2015), yet they historically are underfunded, and in particular those led by women of color.
The Fearless Fund, bridging the gap in venture capital funding for women of color founders, was built by women of color for women of color. The firm’s team brings a wealth of talent and experience together to help women of color entrepreneurs.
Arian Simone, President and Chief Executive Officer of Fearless Fund, is a serial entrepreneur, philanthropist, angel investor, author, and PR & marketing specialist. Ayana Parsons is Chief Operating Officer and has nearly 20 years of experience as both a corporate executive and organizational consultant.
Other team members include:
Rodney Sampson, fund advisor, who is a serial entrepreneur who cofounded, built and sold Multicast Media Technologies, EFactor (EFCT) and Intellectual Currency, a world class integrated go-to-market, publishing, diversity and advisory firm.
Tracy Gray, the Founder and Managing Partner of The 22 Fund, a growth venture capital and advisory firm focused on increasing the export capacity of Southern California companies.
Sequoia Taylor is the Managing Partner of SPRY VC, a liquidity advisory firm based in San Francisco. SPRY has completed over $200 million in private placement transactions since 2016.
Investments to date include: Hairbrella, Streamlytics, Capway and others.
The partnering of the Fearless Fund with the Tory Burch Foundation brings together two entities committed to women entrepreneurs. The Foundation was founded in 2009 to support the empowerment of women entrepreneurs. The organization was founded by Tory Burch who in 2004 launched her now very successful online business of women’s clothing and luxury product lines. Having experienced firsthand the unique challenges of being a woman entrepreneur, Tory established her Foundation to help women entrepreneurs overcome the challenges they face.
Women entrepreneurs and Women of Color entrepreneurs now have two great resources that can accelerate the progress of their companies, bringing them timely resources that are critical for leveling the playing field for women in entrepreneurship.
