Investor Highlight: Serena Williams' Top Picks

As if being a 23-time Grand Slam title winner isn't impressive enough, Serena Williams has been racking up enviable investments through her firm, Serena Ventures. In addition, the champion athlete has added "changing the world" to her list of ambitions and on top of her track record as an angel investor, philanthropist, and partner to other private equity investment firms such as Norwest and CapitalG. She and her business partner, Alison Rapaport, have seen success in the form of investments in 13 unicorns and 6 exits, including Cointracker, Masterclass, and Billie. Earlier this month, their inaugural venture capital fund raised $111MM.

  
Her drive to serve up big checks grew when she heard that women receive only 2% of venture capital funding. She's out to change that dynamic, investing in women-founded companies (53% of her portfolio), Black-founded (47%), and Latino-founded (12%), well above the national averages in these categories.

Let's check out some Serena-backed startup champs:

Esusu Financial is a fintech company that helps renters increase their credit scores by reporting rental payments to credit bureaus. Serena Ventures participated in the company's Round B alongside SoftBank's Vision Fund 2 in January.

Chatdesk provides customer service support to e-commerce brands. The start-up's customers include Andie swimwear, Thinx, and Whistle. Serena Ventures chipped in to a $7MM round in January.

For more Serena Williams-approved startups, check out SerenaVentures' investor profile.