When Arian Simone launched the Fearless Fund in 2019, she was fulfilling a promise. She’d made it to herself during her own early entrepreneurial struggles as a college student.
“Don’t worry about this investor landscape,” she told herself then. “One day you will become the investor you’re looking for.”
That vision of an ecosystem where women of color could access the same capital streams long reserved for others would become the foundation of Fearless Fund. The first venture capital firm was built by women of color, for women of color.
Rapid Growth Meets Fierce Opposition
Fearless Fund scaled rapidly. It attracted support from major financial institutions, deploying more than $27 million into companies like Slutty Vegan and The Lip Bar. But with success came scrutiny, and eventually, a lawsuit that put the fund’s very existence in jeopardy. In August 2023, the conservative group American Alliance for Equal Rights (AAER), led by Edward Blum, sued Fearless Fund and its nonprofit arm. The group claimed that the Strivers Grant Contest, which awarded $10,000–20,000 grants exclusively to Black women entrepreneurs, was racially discriminatory under Section 1981 of the Civil Rights Act of 1866, according to CBS News. A district court initially refused to block the program. Eventually, a three-judge panel of the 11th Circuit Court later issued an injunction, ordering the program suspended during litigation.
For 13 months, Simone led the legal fight. She worked to guard Fearless Fund’s future and the broader principle that historically excluded communities deserve bespoke solutions. She recalls relying on a tight circle of advisors and supporters while pushing ahead.
“We were definitely dealing with constitutional law that would affect the entire Black race,” she said.
In September 2024, the parties reached a settlement and the lawsuit was dismissed. As part of the agreement, Fearless Fund permanently ended the Strivers Grant Contest rather than broadening eligibility. It was a move that avoided the risk of a sweeping court decision outlawing all race-specific funding programs, according to AfroTech.
Though the grant program ended, the dismissal freed Simone and her team to focus on what comes next and to reimagine Fearless’s role in the fight for equity.
From VC to Global Advocacy
The lawsuit clarified for Simone that capital alone cannot dismantle systemic exclusion and that policy, pressure, and accountability matter just as much. Even before the legal battle was fully resolved, she was already laying plans to expand Fearless’s work beyond investment. After closing the fund’s second round, she began sketching out a larger platform. The lawsuit only made the urgency clearer.
In September 2025, during the United Nations General Assembly in New York, Simone launched the Fearless Global Initiative (FGI). Designed as an accountability engine rather than a conference, the platform compels governments, corporations, and institutions to make and keep concrete commitments to equity. At the launch, participants wrote pledges on a public wall, transforming lofty talk into tangible promises, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
For Simone, the future of equity is one in which the demographic makeup of a society is reflected in contracts, investments, and resource allocations—not just symbolic statements.
Redefining Fearless for What Comes Next
The transition from investor to advocate might seem like a leap, but for Simone, it’s a natural evolution. The lawsuit sharpened her understanding that capital alone isn’t enough to dismantle centuries of systemic exclusion. Policy and accountability are just as critical.
“They let me in,” she said, reflecting on the gains she made with Fearless Fund. “But I don’t know who else is coming in after me. I need to make this easier for the person coming after me.”
She knows the fight is far from over, especially as backlash against diversity and inclusion grows louder. But rather than shrink from the pressure, she’s leaning into it, determined to turn obstacles into momentum.
“This country is at a huge inflection point,” she warned. “We need new laws in place to protect the right to fund marginalized communities.”
For Simone’s entire career, from the classrooms of Florida A&M to the courtrooms of a high-stakes legal battle, and now to the halls of the United Nations, she has carried the same convictiont hat equity is a right for everyone. Her journey proves that movements built on service and resilience cannot be silenced.