Health and Wellness
Serena Williams has invested in over a dozen companies currently worth over a billion dollars
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – NOVEMBER 06: Serena Williams attends the 2023 CFDA Fashion Awards on the American Museum of Natural History on November 6, 2023 in New York City. (Photo: Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images)
Serena Williams has invested in almost 100 companies, and plenty of of them are actually worth over $1 billion.
The tennis legend and prolific businesswoman took to TikTok to share her investing journey together with her followers and recalled how her early-stage passion has blossomed over the years.
“I invest in a lot of companies, early companies, and I always have. I have actually been investing for over 14 years and was only an entrepreneur when I was playing tennis. It’s very important to me that while implementing plan A, I have a plan B in place,” Williams explained in a TikTok video, as originally reported by AfroTech.
Her enterprise capital fund, which raised $111 million in 2022, funnels investment dollars into startups led by underrepresented founders (making up 76% of its portfolio), which include Black women, a long-overlooked group in VC circles.
“I found out that less than 2% of all VC money goes to women,” Williams explained in a TikTok video. “When I first heard it, I thought it was a misquote. I thought, “Well, they can’t be real.” We’re talking trillions of dollars and what do you mean that less than 2% of it goes to women?… I found out that when I started investing, I found out that it was true and something like this was happening. So I knew right away 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 believed, “Oh my God.” “I’m a black woman and if I say my name isn’t Serena Williams or I haven’t had a career, that means I would have less than, well, not even less than 2%, a fraction of the chance of getting money if I wanted to start a company.”
“I remember finding this company employing about eight people in a small space 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 have invested in over 85 companies in my personal portfolio [maybe]and I also have about 14 unicorns,” Williams said via TikTok.