Serena Williams Is Rewriting the Investing Narrative With Venture Capital Fund

Founded in 2017, Serena Ventures is dedicated to supporting underrepresented founders.

Serena Williams / Robert Deutsch-USA TODAY Sports

In 2017, Serena Williams founded Serena Ventures, a venture capital fund designed to support women and people of color in their entrepreneurial endeavors.

Raising capital for her new venture wasn’t simple, but the athlete appreciated the challenge. “It’s a competition. I loved it. It gave me energy,” she said on a recent episode of The Deal with Alex Rodriguez and Jason Kelly.

The 42-year-old was inspired in her efforts by the women who she sought to support. Raising capital to invest in others “[wasn’t] about me, and it’s not about me raising capital,” she said. It was about the people, who, in turn, she had the potential to invest in. “We are investing in women. We are investing in people of color,” Williams noted of groups that have historically struggled to raise VC funding. At Serena Ventures, “we’re changing that,” she remarked.

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Since the inception of Serena Ventures, the former professional tennis player has slowly built a portfolio of impressive companies unlike any other out there. “Our portfolio right now, as it stands, is 68% women or person of color,” Williams said. “And that is unheard of in the VC world.” According to the company’s website, 79% of their portfolio is composed of underrepresented founders.

Serena Ventures is just one of the endeavors in which Williams has been investing her time since her retirement in 2022. Though her more public-facing brand campaigns sometimes steal the spotlight, the work she’s doing in the VC space shouldn’t go without acknowledgement.