Kesha Cash

Founder & General Partner at impact-america-fund

Reviewed Updated Apr 26, 2026

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Location Oakland, California
Check Size $250K-$3M
Last Verified Investment Nest Health (Series A) — Nov 21, 2025
Social @KeshaCashIAFund LinkedIn
Stage Focus
seed series-a
Sector Focus
financial-inclusion fintech healthcare health-equity future-of-work edtech workforce-development insurtech clean-energy marketplace

Background

Kesha Cash is the Founder and General Partner of Impact America Fund (IAF), an Oakland, California-based early-stage venture capital firm she launched in 2014 to back high-growth, tech-enabled companies advancing economic agency for low- and moderate-income communities of color in the United States 1 2. She is one of the few solo Black female general partners in U.S. venture capital, and her 2020 Fund II close was characterized by Crunchbase News as one of the largest funds ever raised by a sole Black female GP 3.

Cash is a first-generation college graduate. She was raised on a farm in South Carolina and later in a one-bedroom apartment in Orange County, California, on a Section 8 housing voucher 4. She earned a B.A. in Applied Mathematics from the University of California, Berkeley, and an M.B.A. from Columbia Business School (Class of 2010) 5 6. While at Berkeley she was active in the campus protests against California Proposition 209, the 1996 ballot measure that ended affirmative action in state institutions 3.

Cash spent the first portion of her career as a mergers-and-acquisitions analyst at Merrill Lynch in New York (1999–2002), then worked as an operational consultant to inner-city small businesses in Los Angeles, and as an impact investments associate at Bridges Ventures in London 1 5 6. In 2010 she co-founded Jalia Ventures with serial impact investor Josh Mailman; that vehicle deployed roughly $5 million across 10 mission-driven companies of color, including Red Rabbit, Schoolzilla, and ConnXus 1 4. She founded Impact America Fund in 2013 and closed Fund I at $10 million in 2014 3 4.

She serves on the board of directors of CareAcademy, on the venture council of HealthTech 4 Medicaid, and on the advisory board of the Tamer Center for Social Enterprise / Eugene Lang Entrepreneurship Center at Columbia Business School 1. Impact America Fund was the subject of a 2016 Stanford Graduate School of Business case study on how to structure a successful impact venture capital firm 1 6. She has been named one of Fast Company’s “100 Most Creative People in Business,” a “Top Five Gamechanger” by Forbes, and a “Power Investor” by Essence 1 6.

Stated Thesis

Cash and Impact America Fund publicly describe their work as investing in “a future in which people of color have genuine agency and meaningful participation in the American economy” 2. The fund explicitly targets “high-growth, tech-enabled companies that are capturing billion-dollar opportunities and advancing economic agency for low- and moderate-income communities of color in the U.S.” 2.

In her own words on what the fund looks for in founders:

“We’ve found that entrepreneurs from overlooked communities combine a deep understanding of the problems they are solving, how to build and scale a business around them, and a profound, personal sense of impact.” 2

On the fund’s approach to investor-founder relationships:

“It’s like a marriage, a partnership. It’s being in bed with somebody for seven to 10 years.” 7

Cash has been explicit that diverse-founder representation is an emergent outcome of the fund’s underwriting, not a quota. At the time of the Fund II announcement she stated that “eighty percent of the companies we’ve already invested in are led by a person of color. Seventy percent of them are Black-led” — a result she frames as a byproduct of investing in companies “with outsized impact on low and moderate income communities” 4.

On the conviction that drives the fund:

“When we think about disruption and venture capital, people get to dream and make up a new world. Well hell, I want to make up the new world for low-income Black and brown people.” 3

Inferred Thesis

This analysis is based on Impact America Fund’s published portfolio of 29 companies as of April 2026 8, cross-referenced against contemporaneous press citations for individual rounds. Because Cash was a solo GP through Fund II and remains the sole named GP through Fund III, every IAF investment is reasonably attributable to her decision-making, unlike multi-partner funds where deal attribution is ambiguous.

Sector distribution (29 verified portfolio companies): Financial inclusion / fintech is the single largest category — Camino Financial, Esusu, LoanWell, Mayvenn (a creator-economy marketplace functioning as income infrastructure for stylists), SMBX, SoLo Funds, and arguably District Cover (insurance access) account for 7 of 29 (24%) 4 8 9 10 11. Healthcare and health-equity is the second-largest category — Afynia, Alvee Health, CareAcademy, CareCar, Moneta Health, Nest Health, Twentyeight Health, MindRight, and Sonar Mental Health account for 9 of 29 (31%) 8 12 14 23. Education / edtech is 4 of 29 (14%) — LitLab, Namecoach, Schoolzilla, Upswing 8. Workforce / future-of-work tools account for 3 of 29 (10%) — Driver’s Seat Cooperative, Flockjay, ConnXus 8. Family / parenting / childcare accounts for 2 of 29 (7%) — Guardians Collective, Winnie 8. The remainder includes DuckDuckGo (privacy / consumer tech), Voltpost (clean energy), Aja Labs (sustainable materials), Techstars Impact (accelerator), and District Cover (insurtech) 8 11 15.

Stage distribution: IAF concentrates initial checks at seed and pre-Series A, with significant follow-on into Series A and B. Cash has stated the fund writes 20–25 checks per fund at $250K–$3M 3. The Fund II portfolio reserves 60% of capital for follow-on investment, indicating a high-conviction concentrated approach rather than spray-and-pray 4. Verified rounds where IAF led include CareAcademy’s 2020 Series A ($9.5M, IAF lead) and DuckDuckGo’s 2021 secondary ($100M, GP Bullhound and Impact America Fund lead) 12 15. Verified rounds where IAF was a participant or follow-on investor include Mayvenn Series B (2018), CareAcademy Series B (2022), Esusu Series B (2022, when Esusu became a unicorn), SoLo Funds Series A (2021), Twentyeight Health Series A (2025), Voltpost (2023 seed), Nest Health Series A (2025), and District Cover (2025 follow-on) 9 10 11 13 14 16 17 23.

Geographic focus: Portfolio companies are nationally distributed, deliberately so — IAF’s team itself is “distributed across Southern/Northern California, Washington D.C., and Chicago” 4. Verified portfolio cities include Oakland (Mayvenn), Boston (CareAcademy), Los Angeles (SoLo Funds, Camino Financial), New York (Esusu, Twentyeight Health), New Orleans / Louisiana and Arizona (Nest Health), Nashville (District Cover), and Detroit (Voltpost initial deployments) 4 11 12 14 23. There is no Bay Area concentration; the fund explicitly avoids the typical Sand Hill Road / NYC duopoly.

Founder profile patterns: IAF’s published Fund III portfolio composition is 62% founders of color and 46% women founders 4. Cash repeatedly emphasizes lived-experience founder-market fit. Verified examples: Diishan Imira (Mayvenn) — Black founder building income infrastructure for Black stylists; Abbey Wemimo and Samir Goel (Esusu) — Nigerian-American and Indian-American immigrant founders building credit infrastructure for renters; Helen Adeosun (CareAcademy) — Nigerian-American immigrant founder of color in workforce healthcare training; Sean Salas / Kenny Salas (Camino Financial) — Latino founders serving Latinx small businesses; Bruno Van Lierde and Amy Fan (Twentyeight Health) — founders building telehealth for underserved Medicaid users 4 9 10 12 14.

Co-investor patterns: Across verified rounds, recurring co-investors include Andreessen Horowitz (Mayvenn Series B, District Cover early), Essence Ventures (Mayvenn lead), Cross Culture Ventures (Mayvenn), Rethink Education / Rethink Impact (CareAcademy Series A and B), Goldman Sachs Asset Management (CareAcademy Series B; also LP in IAF Fund III), MassMutual (CareAcademy Series B; LP in Fund III), Techstars Ventures (CareAcademy, SoLo Funds), Revolution’s Rise of the Rest (CareAcademy), ACME Capital (SoLo Funds lead), SoftBank Vision Fund 2 (Esusu Series B lead), Ford Foundation (LP), MacArthur Foundation (LP), W.K. Kellogg Foundation (LP), and Pivotal Ventures (LP, Fund III anchor) 4 9 10 11 12 14 16.

Notable patterns vs. stated thesis: The stated thesis emphasizes “communities of color” broadly. The verified portfolio confirms this with a strong skew toward Black and Latinx founders building products for those same communities. The most under-recognized pattern is the concentration in healthcare — at 31% (9 of 29 companies), healthcare is IAF’s single largest sector and reflects a deliberate bet on Medicaid-population telehealth, mental health, and workforce-training infrastructure rather than the more capital-intensive biotech or device categories. IAF has produced at least one unicorn (Esusu, 2022) and one acquisition (Schoolzilla → Renaissance, 2019; ConnXus → Coupa, 2020; CareAcademy → Activated Insights, November 2025) 4 8 18.

Bridge-round specialization: Cash has publicly described IAF as a fund that often writes “bridge phase” checks for companies aiming for a few more milestones before raising a Series A from a larger institutional lead 4. This is unusual — most institutional seed funds dislike bridge rounds — and represents genuine differentiation. In her words: “If we’re writing a check in the bridge phase, we believe they’re going to get to the other side, and we’re going to dedicate and devote our time over that” 4.

Portfolio

The table below covers the 29 companies on Impact America Fund’s published portfolio page as of April 2026. Where a contemporaneous funding announcement linking IAF to a specific dated round was identified, that source is cited. Companies on the published portfolio page without an independently dated funding announcement in this research pass are noted with the founding-year proxy.

Company Year Stage Source
Mayvenn 2014 (initial); 2018-11-12 (Series B) Pre-Series A initial; Series B follow-on 9 4
Camino Financial 2016-08 Seed 19
CareAcademy 2020-06-11 (Series A lead); 2022-06 (Series B follow-on) Series A lead; Series B follow-on 12 16
SMBX ~2017-2020 Seed 4 8
SoLo Funds 2021-02 Series A 13
DuckDuckGo 2021-06-16 Secondary (co-lead with GP Bullhound) 15
Esusu 2020-2021 (initial); 2022-01-27 (Series B unicorn) Seed initial; Series B follow-on 10
Schoolzilla pre-2019 Seed (acquired by Renaissance 2019) 8
ConnXus pre-2020 Seed (acquired by Coupa 2020) 4 8
Twentyeight Health 2024-09-03 (initial); 2025-01-07 (Series A) Pre-Series A / Series A 14
Voltpost 2023-07-28 Seed 17
Upswing ~2017-2020 Seed 4 8
Driver’s Seat Cooperative ~2020 Seed 8
Flockjay ~2019-2020 Seed 8
Winnie ~2017-2020 Seed 8
Namecoach ~2017-2020 Seed 8
LitLab ~2020-2022 Seed 8
LoanWell ~2020-2022 Seed 8
MindRight ~2018-2020 Seed 8
District Cover 2025-11-12 (follow-on) Seed / follow-on 11
Nest Health 2025-11-21 Series A 23
Afynia ~2022-2024 Seed 8
Aja Labs ~2022-2024 Seed 8
Alvee Health ~2022-2024 Seed 8
CareCar ~2020-2022 Seed 8
Guardians Collective ~2022-2024 Seed 8
Moneta Health ~2022-2024 Seed 8
Sonar Mental Health ~2022-2024 Seed 8
Techstars Impact ~2018 Fund-of-funds / accelerator commitment 8

This table represents IAF’s full published portfolio of 29 companies. Crunchbase records 27 IAF investments and Tracxn similar 11 20, so the published portfolio is at parity with aggregator data. For 11 of 29 companies (38%), a specific dated funding announcement was identified in this research pass; for the remainder, the IAF portfolio listing is the canonical source 8. Approximate years use a “company founding year +/- typical seed timing” proxy and are explicitly noted as approximate.

In Their Own Words

“When we think about disruption and venture capital, people get to dream and make up a new world. Well hell, I want to make up the new world for low-income Black and brown people.” — Kesha Cash, Crunchbase News, October 2020 3

“We’ve found that entrepreneurs from overlooked communities combine a deep understanding of the problems they are solving, how to build and scale a business around them, and a profound, personal sense of impact.” — Kesha Cash, Impact America Fund website 2

“We’re not just investing in Black and brown people…but [rather companies addressing] systemic issues.” — Kesha Cash, TechCrunch, October 27, 2020 4

“If we’re writing a check in the bridge phase, we believe they’re going to get to the other side, and we’re going to dedicate and devote our time over that.” — Kesha Cash, Crunchbase News, October 2020 3

“Eighty percent of the companies we’ve already invested in are led by a person of color. Seventy percent of them are Black-led.” — Kesha Cash, Crunchbase News, October 2020 3

“We want to change the way that capital is deployed and what that means for communities of color.” — Kesha Cash, SOCAP SPECTRUM20 Virtual Session with Diishan Imira and Debra Schwartz, June 10, 2020 21

“We’re not looking for the next home run…this is much bigger than outsized returns.” — Kesha Cash, SOCAP SPECTRUM20 Virtual Session, June 10, 2020 21

“My final thought is collaboration. These are unlikely suspects to have together, and we’re working together.” — Kesha Cash, SOCAP SPECTRUM20 Virtual Session, June 10, 2020 21

“It’s like a marriage, a partnership. It’s being in bed with somebody for seven to 10 years.” — Kesha Cash, Invested Impact / Medium, March 13, 2017 7

“All of our entrepreneurs are profit-driven but also extremely mission-minded.” — Kesha Cash, Invested Impact / Medium, March 13, 2017 7

“How do I help others gain access who may not have it otherwise?” — Kesha Cash, Invested Impact / Medium, March 13, 2017 7

“I’m here to break down some of the barriers that prevent people from gaining access.” — Kesha Cash, Invested Impact / Medium, March 13, 2017 7

“An empowered care worker means a healthier client, a happier employer, and superior healthcare system.” — Kesha Cash, on the CareAcademy Series A lead, June 11, 2020 12

What Founders Say

“You’re not going to make any money until you think really hard about how to make other people money.” — Diishan Imira, CEO, Mayvenn (IAF portfolio company since 2014), SOCAP SPECTRUM20 panel with Kesha Cash, June 10, 2020 21

“Impact and generating profits and returns are not mutually exclusive things.” — Diishan Imira, CEO, Mayvenn, SOCAP SPECTRUM20 panel with Kesha Cash, June 10, 2020 21

“Our driving KPI in the business is around income per stylist. How are we increasing the income?” — Diishan Imira, CEO, Mayvenn, SOCAP SPECTRUM20 panel with Kesha Cash, June 10, 2020 21

The Mayvenn quotes above were spoken on a panel that Cash and Imira co-presented, and they describe the IAF-Mayvenn shared operating philosophy. They are not testimonials about Cash’s working style specifically. Beyond this co-panel commentary, no independently sourced founder testimonials describing Kesha Cash’s individual working relationship were located in this research pass — Helen Adeosun (CareAcademy), Abbey Wemimo and Samir Goel (Esusu), and Rodney Williams (SoLo Funds) appear in their respective funding press releases without first-person commentary about Cash specifically.

Connections

  • Board director, CareAcademy — joined the board in conjunction with the IAF-led Series A in June 2020; CareAcademy was acquired by Activated Insights in November 2025 1 12 18
  • Venture council member, HealthTech 4 Medicaid — health-equity coalition supporting Medicaid-focused founders 1
  • Advisory board, Eugene Lang Entrepreneurship Center / Tamer Center for Social Enterprise, Columbia Business School — institutional ties to her MBA alma mater 1
  • Aspen WIN (Women’s Investment Network) Challenge Council — listed in Aspen Institute affiliation 5 6
  • Co-founder, Jalia Ventures (2010–2013) — $5M impact fund co-founded with serial impact investor Josh Mailman; portfolio included Red Rabbit, Schoolzilla, and ConnXus, with several companies later joining the IAF portfolio 1 4
  • Prior employer: Bridges Ventures (UK) — impact investments associate; Bridges Ventures is one of the longest-running impact investment firms globally 1 5 6
  • Prior employer: Merrill Lynch (1999–2002) — M&A analyst in New York 5 6
  • LP relationships — Impact America Fund III anchor LPs include MassMutual, Health Forward, Cambridge Associates, Pivotal Ventures (Melinda French Gates’s investment vehicle), and W.K. Kellogg Foundation; returning LPs include Ford Foundation, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, and California Wellness Foundation; new LPs in Fund III include Deutsche Bank, Marguerite Casey Foundation, and Goldman Sachs Asset Management funds 22
  • IAF team — works with Brittany Henderson, Kaiton Williams, Melissa Bradley, Yui Scribner, Funmi Garrick (Finance and Operations), and David Clark Guillermo (Investments) 1 22
  • Notable co-investor on Mayvenn — Andreessen Horowitz (Series B, 2018), Essence Ventures (Series B lead) 9
  • Notable co-investor on Esusu (the unicorn round) — SoftBank Vision Fund 2 (Series B lead, January 2022) 10
  • Education — UC Berkeley (B.A. Applied Mathematics) and Columbia Business School (MBA, 2010) 5 6

Sources

  1. Impact America Fund, “Team” page, accessed April 2026. https://impactamericafund.com/team↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩

  2. Impact America Fund, homepage, accessed April 2026. https://impactamericafund.com/↩↩↩↩↩

  3. Crunchbase News, “Trailblazer Kesha Cash Raises $55 Million For Impact America Fund,” October 27, 2020. https://news.crunchbase.com/venture/trailblazer-kesha-cash-raises-55-million-for-impact-america-fund/↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩

  4. TechCrunch, “Impact America Fund closes $55M to invest in startups targeting the world’s overlooked,” October 27, 2020. https://techcrunch.com/2020/10/27/impact-america-fund-closes-55m-to-invest-in-startups-targeting-the-worlds-overlooked/↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩

  5. Signal by NFX, “Kesha Cash’s Investing Profile — Impact America Fund General Partner,” accessed April 2026. https://signal.nfx.com/investors/kesha-cash↩↩↩↩↩↩

  6. Columbia Entrepreneurship, “Kesha Cash ‘10BUS, Founder of Impact America Fund,” accessed April 2026. https://entrepreneurship.columbia.edu/aboutprofile/kesha-cash-10bus-founder-of-impact-america-fund/↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩

  7. Invested Impact (Medium), “Innovator Insights: Kesha Cash, Founder and General Partner at Impact America Fund,” March 13, 2017. https://medium.com/invested-impact/innovator-insights-kesha-cash-founder-and-general-partner-at-impact-america-fund-d4d0921671f8↩↩↩↩↩

  8. Impact America Fund, “Portfolio” page, accessed April 2026. https://impactamericafund.com/portfolio↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩

  9. BeautyMatter, “Mayvenn Raises $23 Million Series B,” November 12, 2018. https://beautymatter.com/articles/mayvenn-raises-23-million-series-b↩↩↩↩↩↩

  10. TechCrunch, “Esusu becomes unicorn with SoftBank Vision Fund 2-led $130M funding,” January 27, 2022. https://techcrunch.com/2022/01/27/esusu-becomes-unicorn-with-softbank-vision-fund-2-led-130m-funding/↩↩↩↩↩↩

  11. Tracxn, “Impact America Fund — 2026 Investor Profile, Portfolio, Team & Investment Trends,” accessed April 2026. https://tracxn.com/d/venture-capital/impact-america-fund/__tfNqGi3OnwUmrCNodxFrgtUKpKCfA9ZVBiyhIZcwqqE↩↩↩↩↩↩↩

  12. CareAcademy, “Press Release: CareAcademy Closes $9.5 Million in Series A Funding Led by Impact America Fund to Fuel Growth and Power 1M Healthcare Jobs by 2023,” June 11, 2020. https://careacademy.com/press-releases/series-a-funding-press-release/↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩

  13. dot.LA, “SoLo Funds Raises $10M, Aims to Attract Talent,” 2021. https://dot.la/solo-funds-2650419220.html↩↩

  14. PR Newswire, “Twentyeight Health Secures $10M in Series A Funding,” January 7, 2025. https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/twentyeight-health-secures-10m-in-series-a-funding–launches-new-payer-partnerships-amidst-surge-of-user-interest-lowering-barriers-to-sexual–reproductive-care-in-43-states-302342130.html↩↩↩↩↩↩

  15. TechCrunch, “On a growth tear, DuckDuckGo reveals it picked up $100M in secondary investment last year,” June 16, 2021. https://techcrunch.com/2021/06/16/on-a-growth-tear-duckduckgo-reveals-it-picked-up-100m-in-secondary-investment-last-year/↩↩↩

  16. CareAcademy, “CareAcademy Raises $20M in New Strategic Funding Led by Goldman Sachs Asset Management,” June 2022. https://careacademy.com/press-releases/careacademy-raises-20m-in-new-strategic-funding-led-by-goldman-sachs-asset-management/↩↩↩

  17. Charged EVs, “Voltpost closes seed funding round for curbside EV charging platform,” July 28, 2023. https://chargedevs.com/newswire/voltpost-closes-seed-funding-round-for-curbside-ev-charging-platform/↩↩

  18. PR Newswire, “Activated Insights Acquires CareAcademy, Creating One of Nation’s Most Comprehensive Workforce and Training Platforms,” November 12, 2025. https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/activated-insights-acquires-careacademy-creating-one-of-nations-most-comprehensive-workforce-and-training-platforms-302612275.html↩↩

  19. PR Newswire, “Camino Financial Raises $2 Million in Equity Financing,” August 2016. https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/camino-financial-raises-2-million-in-equity-financing-300314510.html↩

  20. PitchBook, “Impact America Fund investment portfolio,” accessed April 2026. https://pitchbook.com/profiles/investor/108240-7↩

  21. SOCAP Global, “Collaborating for Impact in Communities of Color, a SPECTRUM20 Virtual Session with Diishan Imira, Kesha Cash, and Debra Schwartz,” June 10, 2020. https://socapglobal.com/2020/06/putting-capital-to-work-for-people-with-diishan-imira-kesha-cash-and-debra-schwartz/↩↩↩↩↩↩

  22. Impact America Fund (Blog), “Announcing Impact America Fund III,” accessed April 2026. https://impactamericafund.com/blog/announcing-impact-america-fund-iii↩↩

  23. PR Newswire, “Nest Health Finishes Series A Round $22.5 Million Strong,” November 21, 2025. https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/nest-health-finishes-series-a-round-22-5-million-strong-302623286.html↩↩↩↩