Serena Williams tech investment in Nigeria is attracting new investors

Serena Williams has won 73 WTA singles titles: 23 of these are Grand Slam events, making her the second player ever to have won more Majors in this specialty behind only Margaret Smith Court, with 24. She completed the virtual Grand Slam, which consists in winning four consecutive Slams not in the same calendar year, twice.

She has also won five year-end Master Cups and 19 Premier category tournaments, as well as 21 Tier I and Tier II titles and a gold medal from the London Olympics in 2012 against Maria Sharapova. Not only in singles Serena Williams can boast numerous victories, but also in women’s doubles and mixed doubles, where there are 16 other Grand Slam tournaments: 14 won with her older sister Venus and two in mixed doubles, both obtained with Maks Mirny in 1998.

To these successes must be added three other gold medals at the Olympics, all won together with Venus, a Federation Cup and two Hopman Cups.

Serena Williams tech investment in Nigeria is attracting new investors

A few weeks ago, Serena Williams’ venture capital firm decided to invest in Nigerian data and insights company Stears, in a $ 3.3 million seed round, led by MaC Venture Capital.

Serena Ventures has partnered with institutional investors MaC Venture Capital, Melo 7 Tech Partners, Omidyar Group and Cascador to invest $ 3.3 million in Stears. In Nigeria, with a GDP of around $ 440 billion and a population of around 211 million, it is expected to be the third largest country in the world by 2050.

Likewise, Egypt, Kenya and South Africa boast some of the largest economies in Africa, with GDPs of $ 404 billion, $ 110 billion and $ 420 billion respectively. Investors are drawn to the large markets of these countries and the potential of the technology companies in them to expand across Africa.

Why did Stears get Serena’s approval? Stears has grown about 6.5% on a monthly basis since 2017 and has doubled the number of users over the past year. Corporate clients, primarily employees working in various financial institutions across Nigeria, now provide over 75% of its revenue, up from 45% in 2021.

The company says it plans to use the new initial funding to expand its geographic coverage by establishing a presence in East and Southern Africa and expanding its product offering.