The Full Color 50

KeshaCash

/ Finance Leaders

If it’s been overlooked, Kesha Cash will find it. Her fund specializes in surfacing talent and product successes in communities and sectors where most of her peers in the financial world don’t seem to see what she sees. Impact America Fund is building an interconnected world, where the success of a community is measured by its shared wealth — not just in financial terms, but across a variety of human, emotional, and fiscal metrics.

 

Kesha’s Bio:

Dubbed a “Top Five Gamechanger” by Forbes and a “Power Investor” by Essence, Kesha Cash founded Impact America Fund (IAF) to harness market opportunities overlooked by traditional investors. In 2016, Stanford Graduate School of Business published a case study on IAF to teach students about the structure of an impact venture fund, and how to analyze the social and economic impact of high-growth technology investments.

Kesha’s personal mission is to transform the economic livelihoods of marginalized communities in America. A Columbia MBA and applied mathematics student from UC Berkeley, Kesha spent the first decade of her career as a mergers and acquisitions analyst at Merrill Lynch in NYC, an operational consultant to inner-city small businesses in Los Angeles, and an impact investments associate at Bridges Ventures in the UK. In 2010, Kesha co-founded a $5M initiative focused on investing in mission-driven entrepreneurs of color, Jalia Ventures, with serial impact investor, Josh Mailman. She also supported Josh with managing Serious Change, LP. Kesha took her vision to the next level by founding IAF.

Kesha grew up in economic hardship and is her family’s first college graduate. Her lived experience and abiding belief in human potential inspire her life’s work. Kesha tells Forbes her vision for the future: “We identify as one human race and deeply consider the impact of our actions on other human beings, the environment and future generations.”

Kesha shares her thought leadership and passion for investing in underserved communities as a national speaker, contributing writer for Women@Forbes, and lecturer for Frontier Market Scouts at Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey.