Tennis icon Serena Williams has made a huge seven-figure investment into the sports tech business, OpenSponsorship.
OpenSponsorship is a sports tech marketing platform, used by brands to connect with top athlete influencers, teams and events all around the world.
OpenSponsorship CEO Ishveen Jolly said: “Since launch, we have been lucky enough to receive investment from some of the most iconic names in the US sporting industry and with Serena at the heart of this Serena Ventures investment, we couldn’t be more excited.”
Among OpenSponsorship’s most noteworthy investors, Serena Ventures now joins David Blitzer, the owner of the National Basketball Association’s (NBA) Philadelphia 76ers and co-owner of Premier League club Crystal Palace.
This comes as the second major investment by Selena ventures this month, following her deal with the merchandise return platform, Freeing Returns.
“She’s really smart, really knowledgeable not only from the sports side but also the business side,” Jolly affirmed.
Since its launch in 2015, OpenSponsorship says it has partnered with 12,000 athletes on the platform worldwide.
As a whole, the business has secured more than 10,000 deals across 400 brands, exceeding $6 million AUD in revenue.
Serena Williams backed the brand, saying: “Brand sponsorship is vital to an athlete’s career and OpenSponsorship is giving them more control and ownership over that process.”
Jolly hopes that Williams will help her create greater connections in the sports industry in order to excel the platform further.
