In celebration of Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month in May, we aim to spotlight the remarkable achievements of AAPI founders in the online private markets. The following data pertains to companies that commenced fundraising on or after January 1, 2023, encompassing both equity and debt deals across Regulation CF, A+, and D. It’s important to note that much of this data is derived from self-identifying information; hence it may not fully represent the entire dataset, as data on race or ethnicity is unavailable for many founders:
- Out of the 1,887 founders for whom we collected data, 183 are Asian American, Native Hawaiian, or Pacific Islander. These AAPI founders are associated with 143 companies (some companies have multiple AAPI founders).
- AAPI founders constitute approximately 9.7% of the founders we have data for during this period. By comparison, according to the 2022 census, approximately 6.2% of the US population identifies as AAPI.
- From January 1st, 2023, companies with at least one AAPI founder have collectively raised $49,074,836 via the online private markets.
- The top AAPI-founded company by total funds raised since 2023 is Substack, securing $5 million in commitments.
- Following closely behind is Perimeter, with $4.4 million raised by an AAPI founder.
- Another notable AAPI-founded venture, Knightscope, garnered $4.2 million from the crowd.
- AAPI founders represent 14% of founders raising online, but in the last 12 months, they received 18% of the funds invested through ECF
