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Serena Ventures raises $111m for their inaugural fund. And listen to our podcast with Ella Chase Hyland about female inheritors and their relationship to money
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Serena Ventures raises $111m for their inaugural fund. And listen to our podcast with Ella Chase Hyland about female inheritors and their relationship to money

Welcome to our #105 weekly newsletter.

“For women taking control of their financial future”

-Jana Hlistova

Join us for our online event. We hope to see you Tuesday, 8 March at 630pm (GMT).


From The Purse


In this week’s newsletter, we focus on Serena Ventures raising $111m for its inaugural fund. Led by founding general partners, Serena Williams, the tennis champion and investor and Alison Rapaport Stillman, the team is mostly women who come from diverse backgrounds and lived experience.

76% of their investments are in solo female founders and/or Black founders in an ecosystem which chronically underestimates and underfunds women and founders of colour.

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You can review the news in brief so you stay on top of global financial, economic and investing trends.

And don’t forget to listen to The Purse Podcast interview with Ella Chase Hyland. She is the co-founder of Wellth Works, which cultivates and develops authentic feminine leaders, showing women that they create success while integrating balance and fun. We talk about female inheritors and their relationship to money.

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And we hope you can join us for our first live online event on Tuesday, 8th March at 630pm (UK) on International Women’s Day.

Dr Kate Levinson and I will be talking about how women can change their relationship with money.

Please register for the event here.

Until next week,

Jana


Serena Ventures raises $111m for inaugural fund

Investing in underestimated and underfunded founders is integral to Fund I’s strategy


Serena Williams is considered one of the greatest tennis players of all time. But her talents extend beyond sports to the world of business, entrepreneurship and investing.

Serena launched her early-stage venture capital (VC) firm, Serena Ventures, in 2014 with the mission to champion diverse, creative founders who are changing the world with their ideas and products across a wide array of industries.

This week, Serena Ventures confirmed they have raised their inaugural fund of $111m to continue their mission, as per their blog.

Today, Serena’s VC firm has:

  • 9 years of angel investing under their belt

  • invested in 60+ portfolio companies

  • their successes include 13 unicorns and 6 exits

  • and their investments include fintech disruptors Propel and Cointracker, edtech giants Masterclass, and consumer product innovators Billie and Daily Harvest.

76% of their investments are in solo female founders and/or black founders…

…in an ecosystem which chronically underestimates and underfunds women and Black founders. Women receive 2% in venture capital funding versus 1.2% for Black founders (US).

And their Fund I strategy is based on the following premise, as per their blog:

  • We bet on founders who are not only obsessed with what they’re building, but whose passion is informed by their lived experience

  • We invest in overlooked, underestimated, and fledgling markets - we are a non traditional investment team and our perspectives give us an edge

  • Our network is unmatched and we are uniquely positioned to add value in ways other firms simply cannot

  • We have skin in the game for our founders, and we’ll answer every call and make every effort to help them succeed

Their conviction in overlooked markets extends beyond demographics to legacy industries.

Serena Ventures team is made up of…

…mostly women who come from diverse backgrounds and lived experience, (are) used to looking at problems differently than most in their industry.

The data shows that women invest in female founders at 2-3x the rate of men. And if they share a similar background or lived experience to the founder, gender and racial bias is often reduced, if not altogether eliminated.

They are led by their founding general partners, Serena Williams and Alison Rapaport Stillman, who’ve built an impressive team of operators, marketers, and investors.

As per their blog, Serena Williams knows what it takes to win, and personally understands the founder journey in a way that few people in the world can.

Alison Rapaport Stillman has over a decade of experience, having previously worked at J.P .Morgan, Wasserman, and Melo7 Tech Ventures. She’s a seasoned venture capitalist with deep expertise in and passion for healthcare, consumer, e-commerce, and fintech investing.

The social impact of investing in female founders and Black founders..

… is vast because the markets they address have been ignored or marginalised by investors for so long. And these underinvested markets are also underserving their customers.

It follows that the startup valuations for female founders and Black founders are often below market value. Therefore traditional investors can buy in at a huge discount.

This is despite female founders having a higher return on investment than their male peers. Why? They often have to bootstap their startup for longer and become better money managers in the process.

Simply put: they do more with less. And generate a higher return on investment.

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News in Brief


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The Purse Podcast


We cover the following in our conversation:

  • the definition of wealth

  • female inheritors and their relationship with money

  • key dynamics and challenges in families

  • ownership vs control

  • investing in female founders

  • being agents of change

Please enjoy! Listen here on iTunes and Spotify+


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We’d love to hear from you. Get in touch with Jana via the The Purse website or tweet @jointhepurse and @janicka.

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