Serena Williams closes the curtain. She has been the most dominant tennis player of the last 20 years, on and off the court. She has a fortune valued by Forbes at 260 million dollars and is the only athlete included in the list of the 100 richest women in the world. Her company, Serena Ventures, has a portfolio of 60 companies. Cryptocurrencies, food, psychology, sports franchises. She thus inverts the American legend.
With his charisma he has changed the history of tennis. He broke social and sporting barriers and from the humble Californian city of Compton has reached the roof of the world. He will leave tennis with 23 ‘majors’ and 73 titles. To his innate sports talent he adds a nose for business, and he is one of the most coveted personalities by brands even in a period in which he has been away from the tracks.
Together with Nike, the firm that accompanied her during most of her sporting successes, she drew a special kit with hundreds of diamonds and shoes with 1.5-carat gold details with the words ‘Queen’, ‘Mama’ and the initials ‘SW’. She has special clothes and shoes to face what will be the last US Open of her career, as she suggested in a recent interview.
At 40 years old, he offered a new example of his tireless competitive spirit last Wednesday, giving himself an extraordinary victory against Anett Kontaveit, number two in the world, to prolong his New York path. Serena doesn’t want to talk about ‘retirement’, but about ‘evolution’, a process that will see him devoting himself to her family, her five-year-old daughter Olympia, and Serena Ventures.
His companies are worth more than a billion
Three-quarters of the companies Serena invests in are founded by women or people of color, according to official data. The American legend recently acknowledged that she likes to chase ‘unicorns’, referring to her willingness to step out of the lane and not homologate.
Thus, it invested in Zigazoo, the world’s largest social network for children; in Nestcoin, active in the field of cryptocurrencies; Infinite Objects, specializing in Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs); Esusu, a consultancy that helps improve credit, and also Impossible Foods plant-based meat products.
Its portfolio of companies has a value that the Wall Street Journal It was recently estimated at more than $1 billion and managing these investments is now a regular part of Serena’s life.
“I wake up and go to the office. Now that everything is digital, I just sit and answer calls all day. When Olympia goes to school, I go to work, ”she told her in a recent half-quoted interview.
The power of ideas
76% of Serena Ventures companies belong to owners and founders who “do not have adequate representation.” 52% of these companies belong to women, 47% to people of color and 12% to Latino entrepreneurs, according to data provided by Serena Ventures.
“I like to invest in companies that have credible founders. It’s about the founder, if we like the company, if the founder has a good story and why he chose that business, ”said Serena in a recent interview.
Always on the lookout for business opportunities, Serena was also recently part of the group of investors with Formula 1 driver Lewis Hamilton who submitted bids to acquire English Premier League club Chelsea.
The American supported the offer of the consortium led by Martin Broughton, former president of Liverpool and the British Airways airline, putting nearly twelve million euros on the table, although the English club finally ended up in the hands of Todd Boehly, co-owner of the franchise of Major League Baseball Los Angeles Dodgers.
It does, however, have odds on the Miami Dolphins of the NFL and Angel City, the NWSL women’s soccer team.
charitable commitment
Beyond business, Serena has always devoted significant efforts and donations to charitable activities, also being an ambassador for UNICEF and founding two schools in Kenya, in 2008 and 2010.
To this he added regular visits to low-income schools and communities to share his experience and support young people who grow up in environments considered “high risk.”
During the coronavirus pandemic, Serena also gave her contribution to provide masks to people with fewer resources.
“I am super competitive, I see this as a ‘bonus’. I have nothing to prove, I have nothing more to gain. I have absolutely nothing to lose. Honestly, I haven’t played in these conditions since 1998”, stated Serena after her last victory against Kontaveit.
He earned the luxury of competing out of passion for the sport and will leave him a legend.
