The American tennis legend, Serena Williams, started her venture capital firm back in 2o14. What triggered her to enter the venture capital industry is the fact that only 2% of the total funds of all the VC firms went to women. This crude reality triggered Williams to become the front-runner in this industry. After dominating the WTA Tour for over 2 decades, Williams now wants to give back to society in her own way; inspiring and backing founders from minority communities. After her retirement, the 23-time Grand Slam champion wants to be a business mom.

And as the data points out, she has certainly excelled in it.

Serena Williams’ $3.3 million investment in a Nigerian company

Nigeria, being one of the big 4 countries on the African continent, has proved to be an attractive technological destination. According to Bloomberg, the 23-time Grand Slam champion, Serena Williams parked her funds at one of its data and insights firm, Stears. Moreover, it wasn’t a small round. Williams’ venture capital firm, Serena Ventures, partnered with MaC Venture Capital to provide a huge amount of $3.3 Million.

It wasn’t an easy breeze for Stears to get the American tennis legend’s attention. Stears has demonstrated impressive growth; with month-on-month growth of 6.5% since 2017. Moreover, the Nigerian tech firm doubled its users last year. Stears is a rare success story in Nigeria. And is a collector and analyst of not just Nigerian, but African data, for an international organization. And these parameters prompted the ‘Queen of the Court’ to invest a huge sum during the seed round.

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Serena Williams’ $111 million venture

Williams’ Venture Capital firm, Serena Ventures, has come a long way since 2014. Moreover, the firm has kept true to its motive, as 53% of the companies in its investment portfolio are founded by women, along with 47% black founders and 12% Latino founders. Certainly reflecting the core value of her company, unity in diversity, 78% of the Serena Ventures portfolio caters to women and people of color.

Serena Williams Boldly Takes the First Step in Her New Career Post Tennis as $111 Million Venture Fund Makes It Big at New York Stock Exchange

According to the New York Times, Serena Ventures, with a portfolio of over 60 companies, raised an inaugural fund of $111 Million. Moving towards tapping into the potential of founders with diverse ideas.

Nike vs Puma: Serena Williams’ contracts and investments

Williams’ won her 1st major in 1999 and signed her first contract with Puma. It was an iconic deal that took the sports world by shock as Puma had exited tennis in 1980. And, with the then World No.41, Puma entered back into sports in 1997. Interestingly, the deal with Puma was negotiated in more than 12 hours with the help of her father, Richard Williams. After seven fruitful years with the brand, the 16-year-old signed for their rival, Nike, in 2003.

Back in 2003, the tennis legend joined Nike for a whopping $60 million contract. And since then, the partnership has flourished for more than two decades. After 18 years of thier partnership, Nike, paid a glowing tribute to her with the Serena Williams Building on its Oregon campus. 

Endorsements and major contracts of Serena Williams

Endorsements play a huge role in supporting athletes throughout their careers. And the same can be said for the Queen of the Court, with almost 99% of her total earnings in recent years coming from various brand endorsements. Over the years, she has joined hands with renowned endorsement partners, including ​​AbbVie, Anheuser-Busch InBev, Audemars Piguet, Block Inc, DirecTV, Ford, Gatorade, Gucci, Hanesbrands, Nike, Subway, Tonal, Wilson Sporting Goods, etc.

However, Williams is no longer associated with one of her first brand partners, Puma, as she signed a huge deal with their rival, Nike. And has stayed with Nike since then. 

Firms Serena Williams owns 

Serena Williams owns her capital investment firm, Serena Ventures. With the aim of creating a relatively more inclusive business environment, Williams’ firm focuses on women and people of color. In addition to the venture capital firm, she also owns S by Serena, a clothing brand that specifically caters to women. It focuses on celebrating strong, sexy, and sophisticated qualities in women while bringing Serena’s unique sense of fashion to the masses!

Serena Williams’ earnings through her investments

The Queen of the Court has established a strong reign off-the-court. Her career prize money is the highest secured by any female athlete at $94.8 Million, along with accumulating a huge $350 million wealth with her off-the-court endorsements. Serena currently boasts a huge net worth of $260 Million, according to Forbes.

Despite playing barely any professional tennis in 2022, Williams remained one of the highest-paid female athletes, after the Japanese tennis star, Naomi Osaka.

Serena Williams and list of her business partners

Other than her two businesses, Serena Ventures and ‘S by Serena’. Williams also owns a stake in the NFL team, Miami Dolphins, and she is not the only celebrity there. Jennifer Lopez and Mark Anthony are also part of the franchise. Moreover, she joined her husband, Alexis Ohanian, and daughter, Olympia, as the majority stakeholders on the NWSL soccer team, Angel City FC.

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Moving away from sports, Serena teamed up with Hollywood star Jake Gyllenhaal to invest in the sustainable food brand, Eat Just, Inc. Earlier this year, she joined renowned musician Jay-Z to invest in Kopi Kenangan, an Indonesian billion-dollar coffee chain.