Serena Williams’ Venture Capital Fund Raises $111 Million

Serena Ventures, a VC firm founded by tennis legend Serena Williams, has raised $111 million for its inaugural fund. The firm is building on a nine-year history of angel investing, which included financial tech companies Propel and Cointracker, as well as video education company MasterClass. 

The investment firm has a history of investing in companies with diverse ownership, with 76% of the firm’s portfolio founders coming from underrepresented backgrounds, Serena Ventures says. Williams grew inspired to start Serena Ventures due in part to her realization that the vast majority of venture capital money does not reach female-owned companies, according to the New York Times.

Individually, the 23-time Grand Slam event winner has also recently invested in bitcoin rewards app Lolli and TracFlo, a workflow operations app which won a startup competition held at an HBCU men’s basketball event in December.