Gold House launches $30 million fund to invest in entrepreneurs of Asian descent

cnbc.com:

Megan Ruan knows firsthand how representation can impact funding for entrepreneurs. She recalled being the only woman of color working at a family office earlier in her career and running a portfolio of venture investments.

«I saw the decisionmaking and how it differed between the people that were check-writers at these different funds and the types of companies and founders that they invested in, and what a difference it made to have one, two or more underrepresented voices in the room,» Ruan told CNBC.

Now, Ruan is a general partner at Gold House Ventures, a $30 million fund investing in Asian and Pacific Islander founders. Gold House, a nonprofit collective advancing representation and socioeconomic equity for APIs, announced the launch of the fund Tuesday morning.

Gold House Ventures aims to boost API leadership in the corporate world by backing Asian entrepreneurs. Asian American professionals are the least likely demographic in the U.S. to be promoted into management, according to a Havard Business Review analysis. Employees of Asian descent comprised about 13% of the professional workforce, but just 6% of executives, the Ascend Foundation found.

«Gold House Ventures is saying, how do we build an index of all the top Asian private companies?» Ruan said.

The fund's investors include venture capital firms Lightspeed, NEA, Bain Capital and General Catalyst, along with philanthropies like the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative. Its individual investors include DoorDash CEO Tony Xu, Block CFO Amrita Ahuja and YouTube co-founder Steve Chen, along with celebrities like Anderson .Paak, Padma Lakshmi and Daniel Dae Kim.

Gold House Ventures grew out of the nonprofit's existing work promoting API entrepreneurship. In 2019, Gold House