“I love how deliberate Serena Williams has been about this chapter of her life” – Tennis fans react to American star's latest investment in Nigerian data and insights firm

Fans have hailed Serena Williams for her latest backing of a Nigerian data and insights firm.

Williams, who announced her decision to evolve away from tennis back in August, is now actively transitioning into her role as a businesswoman with her investment firm Serena Ventures.

She founded Serena Ventures in 2014 with the aim of investing in startups whose perspectives and innovations level the playing field for women and people of color. Since its introduction, the tennis legend’s firm has backed a plethora of startups, with the latest being a Nigerian data and insights firm “Stears”. The startup received $3.3 million in a seed round of financing led by MaC Venture Capital and included an investment from Serena Ventures.

On its website, the company states that its mission is to “become the world's most trusted source of African data, insight, and data collection tools for businesses, financial and policy professionals.”

As per Bloomberg, Serena Williams’ emailed statement read that her main reason for investing in Stears was their well-planned strategy.

“One of the main reasons I invested in Stears is not because of my love and appreciation for Africa, but because Stears has strategically thought of how to increase the investment community on the continent. They’re aware of the complexities and have leverage with data and technology, and I truly respect what they’re doing,” she said.

Fans have expressed their delight at the news of a prominent global figure such as Williams investing in an African firm.

“What I like most is how Black stars are getting into the tech and VC world. Many are now wise enough to invest their money outside of entertainment and also help create opportunities and funding for black businesses,” one individual remarked.

Another person lauded Williams for making optimistic use of position and background while investing in businesses.

“Love it when athletes leverage their likeness and cultural capital to get into unique investment opportunities,” another fan voiced.

Here are some more fan reactions:

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Serena Williams' VC Firm Leads Ugandan Fintech's $12.3 Million Pre-Series A Funding Round

Serena Williams' firm has also backed Ugandan fintech Numida.

A couple of weeks ago, Serena Williams' venture capital firm also backed a Ugandan fintech called "Numida" and led their $12.3 million pre-Series A funding round.

Before this, in 2019, Williams' firm also invested in Andela, a software developer training and outsourcing company operating in four African countries.

The 23-time Grand Slam champion, who attended Black Tech Week in Cincinnati as a keynote speaker in July, had voiced that the only way to bring about a change and have more people invest in black businesses was when people like her supported it.

"I think the only way to change that is to have people that look like me ... that look like you guys to be writing the big checks. That's when I said I want to start Serena Ventures and expand the angel portfolio, because that number I can't compute," Williams had stated.