Serena Williams open to owning WNBA team, calls women’s sport “overly safe bet”

Serena Williams is interested in expanding her vast business portfolio to include women’s basketball, the 23-time Grand Slam champion revealed in an exclusive interview with CNN.

“There is no risk (factor),” she said of the WNBA, calling women’s sports an “overly safe bet” when it comes to investment opportunities. “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.”

Williams launched Serena Ventures, a microventure capital firm, in 2014, and in the decade since has invested in 66 start-ups, the vast majority of which led by women and people of color.

The former No. 1 officially evolved away from tennis following the 2022 US Open, and lauds the continued “moment” women’s sports finds itself in across multiple disciplines, from soccer to basketball—the latter led by top WNBA draft pick Caitlin Clark.

It’s time to lift up other sports…There’s so many other sports that women do so great, let’s put it on the platform tennis is on. Serena Williams

“It’s having a moment it should have always had,” she said in an interview with CNN’s Amanda Davies. “Tennis has had its moment and it’s international and it’s huge and it’s always going to be there, but now it’s time to lift up other sports…There’s so many other sports that women do so great, let’s put it on the platform tennis is on.”

Williams has already invested in soccer and golf on behalf of daughter Alexia Olympia, who is a part owner of Angel City FC and the LAGC.

“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 explained. “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.”

Click here to check out the full interview with Williams.