Former American tennis star Serena Williams recently spoke about her motivation to start her venture capital firm, Serena Ventures. While the 41-year-old has earned well from her prize money and endorsements, she is an active investor too.

In spite of her inspiration, there were some obvious reasons like investing in different sectors. Serena also wanted to lead by example. The 23-time Grand Slam champion recently opened up about the motivation behind starting Serena Ventures. Here’s what she said.

Why did Serena Williams start investing?

Serena Williams recently gave an interview for the official YouTube channel of MetLife. The former world number one spoke in detail about her motivation behind starting a venture capital firm. The 41-year-old also discussed different factors she considers while making an investment decision.

She said, “I learned about four-five year’s ago that women didn’t get a lot of VC money. They got less than 2% of VC money.”

Further, Serena pointed out how people of color get even lesser investment. “Also, by the way, people of color, black people got even less than that two percent. It wasn’t even a full point. And so for me, that was really important to say if I have to start a business. I am a woman and I’m black. I basically am not gonna get funded,” she added.

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After discussing the challenges for women and people of color, the 41-year-old explained how she plans to bring about a change with her venture capital firm.

“In order to make that opportunity you need to have people writing the cheques differently,” Serena added.

While Serena Williams has a visionary and noble cause behind her investment, she still makes wise business decisions that help her earn well. Currently, Serena Ventures’ estimated valuation is around $111 million.

Serena still features in the top two of the highest-earning female athletes

Serena Williams has not played a lot of tennis in the last few years. Specifically speaking about the past year, she eventually returned after a poor run of form. However, this didn’t impact her earnings as a star athlete. The 41-year-old is still going strong and is featured at the second spot among the world’s highest-earning female athletes.

Japanese tennis star Naomi Osaka took the first spot for the third consecutive year. Female tennis players are now following the path Serena carved.

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It will be interesting to see if we are going to see more female athletes entering the arena of venture capital and investments.