The early-stage enterprise capital agency run by tennis great Serena Williams has raised $111 million in inaugural funds.
Serena Ventures will make investments the cash in tech startups run by entrepreneurs from under-represented communities, together with girls and minorities, the 23-time Grand Slam winner informed The New York Times’ DealBook newsletter.
The VC agency will spend money on a number of Collection A rounds.
“I’ve at all times been fascinated with know-how, and I’ve at all times liked the way it actually shapes our lives,” Williams informed DealBook.
“After I met [her husband, Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian], that was our first dialog. That’s how we met,” she stated.
“I used to be speaking about investments.”
Serena Ventures has a portfolio of 60 corporations, together with SendWave, MasterClass, and Day by day Harvest.
Williams informed DealBook that she was impressed to spend money on tech startups after listening to a chat by Clear CEO Caryn Seidman-Becker, who stated that lower than 2% of enterprise cash goes to girls.
“I’m going as much as her afterward and requested, ‘Inform me about this 2 p.c — I do know perhaps you misspoke’,” Williams stated.
“And he or she says, ‘No, it’s true.’ And I actually couldn’t wrap my thoughts round the truth that 98% of all of this cash we’re speaking about — billions of {dollars} — goes to at least one sort of particular person.”
Greater than three out of 4 corporations backed by Serena Ventures has numerous management.
Lots of the corporations that acquired angel funding from Serena Ventures are within the cryptocurrency area, together with Lolli and Bitski, the NFT market.
The agency has additionally invested in a Nigeria-based web3 startup, Nestcoin, which seeks to make cryptocurrency extra accessible.
Along with her tennis profession, Williams has branched out within the enterprise world, together with style and leisure.
