Nearly four years after retiring from professional tennis, Serena Williams returned to Wimbledon this year before withdrawing on the Fourth of July due to a knee injury. Off the field, however, she has remained inactive: she welcomed a second child with her husband, Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, in 2023; It launched a brand partnership with weight loss telehealth provider Ro last year; She continued to expand her venture capital footprint through Serena Ventures.
Williams quietly founded Serena Ventures in 2014, bringing it out of obscurity in 2019 with a mission to support companies led by women, people of color, and other underrepresented founders. The firm raised $111 million for its first institutional fund in 2022 and has since invested in more than 100 companies in fintech, healthtech and e-commerce.
Her record is notable: 14 portfolio companies It has reached unicorn status, including Indonesian coffee chain Kopi Kenangan and weight loss app Noom. More than half (54 percent) of Serena Ventures portfolio companies Founded by women, compared to only 1.1 percent of total venture funding going to women in 2025.
“It was very important for me to have a plan B while I was executing my plan A,” Williams said in an interview. TikTok video 2024 About building the company alongside her tennis career.
Here are the top founders backed by Serena Ventures, which holds its portfolio 85 percent Led by underrepresented entrepreneurs.
Kara Egan, Teal Health
Serena Ventures first invested in Teal Health in 2023 as part of an $8.8 million seed round alongside companies including Metrodora Ventures and Laurene Powell Jobs’ Emerson Collective, and participated again in a $10 million round in 2025.
Egan, 45, founded Teal Health in 2020 to expand access to cervical cancer screening. Its flagship product, the at-home Teal Wand, has higher detection rates for human papillomavirus, the leading cause of cervical cancer, than in-clinic tests, according to a clinical study funded in part by the National Cancer Institute and the National Institutes of Health.
Egan said Williams helped sharpen the company’s focus. “[Their support] “It reinforced our conviction that preventive care products should be designed with the same precision in terms of experience as clinical outcomes,” she told Observer, adding that the team has been an active partner in scaling the business without losing sight of patients’ needs.
Khaled David, Track Flow
Serena Ventures invested in TracFlo in 2021 as part of a $1 million prize package awarded through the HBCU Startup Pitch Competition at the Invesco QQQ Legacy Classic.
David founded TracFlo in 2019 to simplify financial management in the construction industry, helping teams track time and materials, manage proposals and accelerate payments. He previously worked as a safety engineer for Turner Construction and led Bunkers Hill Construction in New York.
In 2024, David participated in the Google for Startups Accelerator, where Gemini integration helped improve customer efficiency on the platform by 80 percent.
Rodney Williams and Travis Holloway, SoLo Funds
Serena Ventures invested an undisclosed seven-figure sum in SoLo funds in 2023.
Founded in 2018, the fintech platform allows users to lend and borrow small, short-term funds within a community model. Holloway, 38, serves as CEO, while Williams, 41, serves as president.
The company has facilitated more than 2.5 million loans to date. Despite a lawsuit filed by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in 2025 over alleged misleading advertising (the suit has since been dismissed), SoLo boxes are still widely used.
Esvin Jolly and Ronnel Nesbitt, OpenSponsorship
Serena Ventures backed OpenSponsorship in 2022 with a seven-figure investment.
Founded in 2015, this platform connects athletes, creatives, and health influencers with brands for marketing partnerships. Clients include Jake Paul, LeBron James, Taylor Fritz and Hailey Deegan, while brands such as Walmart, Izod and Harlemless Harvest have used the platform to secure talent deals.
Jolie, a former director of the British Wrestling Organisation, stressed the relationship between content and engagement. “I feel like the performance is there because the engagement is there. She recently told Sports Business Journal that the buzz exists because its content is interesting. Nesbitt, a software developer, leads the company’s technical strategy.
More founders backed by Serena Ventures
- Meena Shahid, Catherine Dennis, and Benjamin Best founded Numida in 2016, a Uganda-based fintech platform serving SMEs.
- Yele Bademosi and Joseph Taiwo Orilogbon launched Nestcoin in 2021 as a venture studio and holding company focused on native crypto products.
- Joanna Strober, Sharon Mears, Dr. Kathleen Jordan, Dr. Mindy Goldman, and Jill Herzig co-founded Midi Health in 2021, a platform that addresses the health needs of midlife women.
- Emily Hussey founded Rebel in 2021 to resell and clear excess inventory, baby gear, and open-box home goods.
- Wemimo Abbey and Samir Goel launched Esusu in 2018 to help renters build credit through on-time payment reporting.
- Isoken Igbinedio founded Parfait in 2020, combining artificial intelligence with human expertise to create luxury custom wigs tailored to individual measurements, skin tone and style preferences.
