Serena Williams says she would be ‘super interested’ in owning a WNBA team
Exclusive: By Amanda Davies and Issy Ronald, CNN
(CNN) — Since evolving away from tennis, Serena Williams has become a prolific investor inside and outside the sporting world with stakes in soccer club Angel City FC and golf franchise Los Angeles Golf Club (LAGC) alongside her other ventures.
And the 23-time grand slam champion told CNN’s Amanda Davies she is “super interested” in adding a WNBA team to her portfolio.
“I absolutely would be (interested). With the right market, I would definitely be super interested in that,” she said, acknowledging the “moment” that women’s basketball is having after a successful NCAA tournament that broke all kinds of viewing records.
The WNBA Draft takes place on Monday in which Caitlin Clark is expected to be the No. 1 overall pick is only sustaining that interest.
Even before she moved away from tennis, Williams’ company Serena Ventures had invested in 66 startups, including 16 unicorns – companies valued at more than $1 billion. She has also sought to champion traditionally underrepresented entrepreneurs – 78% of the startups in which Serena Ventures had invested were started by women and people of color.
And as an experienced investor, Williams says women’s sport is “an overly safe bet to me when it comes to investing.”
“There is no risk (factor),” she said. “Women’s sport is exciting, women are exciting to watch. What’s the difference? … I think that even more people watched the college women’s basketball than the men. So I think that people are realizing that is exciting to watch.”
As well as investing in all these ventures herself, Williams has invested in her six-year-old daughter Olympia’s name, making her a part owner of both Angel City FC and LAGC.
Williams’ husband Alexis Ohanian even posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, that Olympia is now the youngest two-team owner in professional sports, and that their then-unborn daughter Adira was also a part owner of LAGC.
“It’s how I was raised when I was young,” Williams said of her decision to invest in her daughters’ names.
“My dad made us open our own bank accounts and I’m talking like we were super young. Obviously, he and my mom had to co-sign, but we had $100,” she recalled. “We were literally five or less, and we understood the importance of ownership.
“And so I think that she … will always know the importance of being an entrepreneur, being an owner and the role that it’s going to play because believe me, she’s going to work for it as soon as she can … this isn’t free. She has to work for that. And I think she will embrace that.”
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