Serena Williams has invested in nearly 100 companies and multiple are now valued at $1B+.
The tennis legend and prolific businesswoman took to TikTok to share her investing journey with her followers, and mentioned how her passion her supporting early stage has blossomed over the years.
“I invest in a lot of companies, early companies, and I’ve always done this. I’ve actually been investing for over 14 years and just been an entrepreneur while I was playing tennis. It’s super important for me to make a plan B while I was doing my plan A,” Williams explained in a TikTok video, as originally reported by AfroTech.
Her venture capital fund Serena Ventures, which raised $111 million in funding in 2022, funnels investment dollars to startups headed up underrepresented founders (comprised of 76% of its portfolio), which include Black women, a long overlooked group in VC circles.
“I learned that less than 2% of all VC money went to women,” Williams explained in a TikTok video. “And when I first heard that, I actually thought it was a misquote. I thought, ‘Well, they can’t be real.’ Like, we’re talking about trillions of dollars, and what do you mean less than 2% of that goes to women?…I learned that when I first started investing, I learned that actually was true and that was something that was happening. And so I knew right then and there that one day I wanted to raise a fund or raise money and invest in women.”
She added, “I also learned that even less went to people of color. So I thought, ‘My goodness. I’m a Black woman and say my name isn’t Serena Williams, or I hadn’t had a career, that means I would have less than, well, not even less than 2%, a fraction of a chance to get money if I wanted to start a company.”
“I remember finding that company with like eight people in a small room in a garage in San Francisco. And I just fell in love with what they were doing and what they were building,” she explained on TikTok. “I’ve invested, in my personal portfolio, in over 85 companies [maybe], and I also have about 14 unicorns,” Williams said via TikTok.- Essence