Serena Williams Is Hunting For The Next Trillion-Dollar Startup
Serena Williams wants to invest in the next trillion-dollar company with the help of her newly rebranded investment firm, Starfire Ventures. The new investment firm will focus on helping high-potential founders with access to venture funding.
“We’ve just rebranded ourselves. . . . I felt like Serena Ventures is great, but I wanted it to be bigger than me. There are so many amazing people on the team, and there’s so much that we do,” Williams said in an interview with Fast Company.
About Starfire Ventures
Currently, Starfire has invested in 16 companies that have reached Unicorn status, and the firm will continue to prioritise women and underrepresented entrepreneurs. “We invest in everyone. We invest in people who look like you. We invest in people who look like me. It’s just that we do see a lot of women and a lot of underrepresented founders because they know that we’ll hear their story.”
Williama continues: “We are only investing in winners. If we don’t feel the company is going to return our fund, we’re not going to invest in them.”
The history of Serena Ventures
With over 14 years of investment experience, she established Serena Ventures in 2014, a venture capital fund to empower women and underrepresented founders.
Williams’ portfolio includes over 85 companies, including healthcare startup HUED and Parfait, led by Black women. Remarkably, 14 companies in her portfolio have achieved unicorn status, each valued at over $1 billion. Last year, the VC firm participated in a $10 million seed funding round for Teal Health – a women’s health startup founded by Kara Egan (CEO) and Dr Avnesh Thakor.
Image: Getty Images
