PayPal Faces Allegations of Racial Bias Against Asian Americans

New York: So, there’s this big story about PayPal. An Asian American entrepreneur named Nisha Desai is suing them. She says the company is being racially biased with its funding program. Apparently, they only want to give money to Black and Hispanic applicants, which she claims has cost her a ton of cash.

Desai runs a venture capital firm called Andav Capital. She thought she’d be a great fit for PayPal’s investment initiative, which was launched to help minority-owned businesses. But after trying for a month and a half to get funding, she says PayPal just ghosted her. Meanwhile, they were busy investing $100 million in firms led by Black and Hispanic folks.

She’s not alone in this. Desai says other Asian American women have also been told they can’t get funding because of their race. In her lawsuit, she argues that PayPal sees Asian Americans as the “wrong kind of minority.”

PayPal hasn’t said much about the lawsuit, just that they don’t comment on ongoing legal matters. Desai is claiming that PayPal broke several civil rights laws by not allowing her and others to apply for funding based on their race. She’s looking for damages and wants to stop PayPal from using race as a factor in their investment decisions.

This case is part of a larger conversation about diversity and inclusion in corporate America, especially as some groups push back against these initiatives. Desai’s legal team is known for taking on conservative causes, and they’re ready to fight this one out in court. The case is officially called Andav Capital et al v PayPal Holdings Inc et al, filed in the Southern District of New York.