Venture capitalist Theresia Gouw is “smart, opinionated and the only woman in the room,” says Heather Fernandez, cofounder and CEO of healthtech startup Solv and former executive at real estate tech firm Trulia, which Gouw backed in 2005. She’s also become a woman of many firsts. Born in Indonesia to parents of Chinese descent, Gouw immigrated to the U.S. when she was three. She later became the first person in her high school to attend Brown University, the first female partner at venture capital powerhouse Accel and cofounder of one of the first female-led VC firms in Silicon Valley. “The American dream is so central to my personal story,” she told Forbes in 2023.

She now has another “first” to add to her list. Gouw is America’s first female billionaire venture capitalist, worth an estimated $1.2 billion. Much of her fortune stems from her 15-year tenure at Accel, where she was part of the team that led that firm’s lucrative early bet on Facebook (now called Meta). She now runs Acrew Capital, an early-stage venture capital firm that she cofounded in 2019. Acrew raised $700 million in October to invest in data and security, health and fintech startups, bringing the firm’s assets under management to $1.7 billion—with an emphasis on diversity, especially through its Diversify Capital Fund.

Women made up just 17% of VC decision makers (partners, managing directors and principals) in 2024, per a PitchBook report. The private market data firm also reported that firms with at least one female cofounder captured around 22% of VC funding in 2024, down from 25% in 2023. Things likely won’t move toward parity anytime soon. On President Trump’s first day in office, he issued an executive order mandating the termination of all federal diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs—which he called “radical and wasteful”—that have supported women, people of color, individuals with disabilities and others. In addition, some of the world’s biggest companies with powerful corporate venture capital arms, including Google, Meta and Goldman Sachs, have rolled back DEI initiatives.

How Gouw will respond to the new environment isn’t clear, but for many years she has been a strong advocate for DEI, doubling down on the practice in several ways: starting Acrew, with an founding investment team that’s 83% women or people of color; spearheading an initiative to bring Historically Black Colleges and Universities into the VC world; cofounding DEI-focused fund of funds First Close Partners (now with some $35 million in assets); and cofounding All Raise, a nonprofit that helps female founders and investors in Silicon Valley network and find mentors.

Gouw didn’t respond to a request for comment on this story or on Forbes’ estimate of her net worth, but she did speak to Forbes in 2023.

“I'm really excited to be able to bring together my........

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