Reddit chief renews discrimination suit against venture capital firm

Ellen Pao, the interim CEO of Reddit, is renewing a lawsuit alleging that she faced gender discrimination at one of Silicon Valley’s most well-known venture capital firms.

A spokesperson for Pao said that she would appeal a jury ruling from March that found that Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield and Byers had not engaged in gender discrimination when it denied Pao promotions.

{mosads}The spokesperson said that Pao was not commenting on her decision.

The firm, which has a long history in Silicon Valley, has repeatedly denied that discrimination played into Pao’s career trajectory there — and did so in a statement on Tuesday.

“A 12-member jury found decisively in favor of KPCB on all four claims,” KPCB partner Christina Lee said in a statement. “We remain committed to gender diversity in the workplace and believe that women in technology would be best served by focusing on this issue outside of continued litigation.”

The case helped shine a spotlight on questions of diversity in the technology industry. Many technology giants are dominated by men, according to statistics provided by the companies.

Lawmakers have taken notice. The Congressional Black Caucus has also introduced an initiative to diversify the tech sector racially — and says it hopes to work with companies over the course of the program.