# The venture capital gap that funds white wealth

> Women of color receive less than 0.39% of VC funding, while their pension money underwrites the industry.
- Title: The venture capital gap that funds white wealth · TIME
- Summary: Women of color receive less than 0.39% of VC funding, while their pension money underwrites the industry. Arian Simone argues that venture capital…
- Keywords: venture capital, racial inequality, women of color, vc funding, wealth gap, arian simone, venture, capital, gap, funds, white, wealth
- Source: TIME — https://time.com/article/2026/10/01/can-venture-capital-help-unlock-wealth-and-equality-for-all-
- Author: Arian Simone
- Published: 2026-10-01T10:00:03.558+00:00
- Read time: 2 min
- Topics: venture capital, racial inequality, women of color, vc funding, wealth gap, arian simone
## A clothing store taught her about capital
Arian Simone opened a women's clothing store in college and discovered that a great idea alone was not enough to build a business. She needed capital to grow, and finding that money was not easy.
## The numbers shocked her
Women of color make up nearly twenty percent of the U.S. population, yet only zero point three nine percent of venture capital funding is invested in women-of-color-owned businesses. Black women comprise approximately seven percent of the population and start more companies than any other demographic, yet obtain less than zero point three five percent of VC funding.

> only 0.39% of venture capital funding is invested in women-of-color-owned businesses
## Women get less than two percent
Women of all races combined obtain less than two percent of all VC funding. The rest is awarded to male founders. This disparity persists despite women comprising over fifty percent of the U.S. population.

> women of all races combined obtain less than 2% of all VC funding
## Diverse workers fund white men's investments
The vast majority of venture capital comes from public employees' retirement funds. In the federal workforce, forty four percent of workers are women, eighteen percent are Black, ten percent are Latino, and seven percent are Asian American. Yet white men direct most of these diverse workers' pension funds to white-owned businesses.
## A legacy of unpaid and underpaid labor
Black people were not paid for their labor from sixteen nineteen, when enslavement began, until the eighteen sixties. They were then underpaid and economically exploited for another hundred years after Jim Crow laws began. More than one hundred fifty years after Emancipation, Black people still underwrite the accumulation of white wealth through their pension fund investments.
## Simone commits to changing the system
Arian Simone decided she had to help ensure that retirement fund investments reflect the diversity of the people contributing to them. She recognised that diverse perspectives in venture capital would reduce cognitive biases and unlock billions of people's talents and skills currently missed by the homogeneous industry.
## Key takeaway

Arian Simone argues that venture capital systematically directs diverse workers' pension funds away from Black and brown entrepreneurs, perpetuating racial wealth inequality.