Williams wants to balance disadvantages for women and PoC in the distribution of venture capital
Only two percent of venture capital goes to women and just as much to people of color (PoC). When tennis icon Serena Williams heard this from a lecturer at a seminar, she researched further and founded Serena Ventures with her business partner Alison Stillman. The goal: bring more venture capital to women and PoC. This is reported by Deutschlandfunk (dlf) and quotes Williams from the EssentiallySports platform: “It’s something I’ve really developed a passion for and something that affects everyday life.” That was a few years ago, Serena Venture was founded in 2014: Since then, Williams and her team have invested in over 60 startups.
Not only the two founders are women, the majority of the other executives are women and PoC. “When you hire women and people of color, you tend to choose more diversity, which helps me say, okay. I shouldn’t just give my money to men, I should diversify it,” Williams quoted the dlf as saying. This sets Serena Ventures apart from the rest of the venture capital industry, which is heavily male-dominated.
Clubhouse and Wondermind are part of the Serena Venture portfolio
According to dlf, when investing, attention is not only paid to the fact that the founders are women or PoC, but also to the contribution that the startup makes to society. The funds should change something for everyone and do something good. The best-known startup in the Serena Ventures portfolio is social media platform Clubhouse, but Williams has also previously invested in Selena Gomez’s mental health startup Wondermind.
Nobody needs to be afraid of a lack of financing for white male founders – according to the IMARC Group, the venture capital industry was valued at 211.3 billion US dollars in 2021 and is expected to grow to 584.4 billion US dollars by 2027. Williams’ company operates with funds in the hundreds of millions, so it only accounts for a fraction of the market.
Editorial office finanzen.net
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