10 min read
Serena Williams' venture capital firm backs Unrivaled, a 3-on-3 basketball league founded by Breanna Stewart and Napheesa Collier. The oversubscribed Series B round led by Bessemer Venture Partners brings the league's total valuation to $340 million...
In a landmark moment for women's sports and athlete-driven business ventures, Serena Williams' venture capital firm, Serena Ventures, has joined an impressive roster of investors in Unrivaled's oversubscribed Series B funding round. This investment marks another significant step in Williams' mission to back bold founders and transform the landscape of women's athletics through strategic capital deployment.
Serena Williams has been steadily expanding her footprint in the sports ownership and investment world. Beyond her legendary tennis career, Williams has demonstrated a keen eye for promising ventures and a commitment to advancing opportunities for women athletes.
Her growing sports portfolio includes:
Through Serena Ventures, Williams is not just investing capital—she's investing in the future of women's sports and creating pathways for female athletes to build sustainable careers beyond their playing days.
Founded in 2023 by WNBA superstars Breanna Stewart and Napheesa Collier, Unrivaled is revolutionizing women's professional basketball with a bold new model. The 3-on-3 basketball league has set a new precedent in women's sports by offering the highest salaries in women's professional basketball history.
The numbers speak for themselves. Unrivaled athletes earned approximately $220,000 last season, a dramatic increase compared to WNBA salaries which range from $66,000 to $150,000. Every player in the league earns at least six figures, setting a new standard for compensation in women's professional sports.
"We wanted to create something that truly valued women athletes and paid them what they're worth," explains co-founder Breanna Stewart. "For too long, women have had to play overseas during the off-season just to make ends meet. Unrivaled changes that equation."
What sets Unrivaled apart isn't just the salary—it's the equity. Every athlete who participated in the inaugural league received an equity stake in the company, making them true partners in the league's success. This groundbreaking approach aligns player interests with league growth and provides long-term wealth-building opportunities.
"Everybody got equity coming into this league, that's the most important thing," said Angel Reese, a player on Unrivaled's Rose BC team, during a January virtual press conference. "I know five years from now this thing is gonna be bigger than ever."
The inaugural season featured top talent including:
The league's inaugural season, which concluded in March 2025, exceeded expectations across multiple metrics, validating the business model and attracting serious investor interest.
These metrics demonstrate not just fan interest, but sustained engagement and commercial viability—exactly what investors look for when evaluating sports properties.
Unrivaled's growth trajectory has been nothing short of remarkable. After closing a $28 million Series A round in 2024, the league's Series B round—led by prestigious venture capital firm Bessemer Venture Partners—has brought its total valuation to an impressive $340 million.
The Series B round attracted an all-star cast of investors, including:
The diverse investor group includes media giants, athlete-entrepreneurs, and active professional athletes—all betting on Unrivaled's vision for the future of women's basketball.
"We're continuing to align with partners who elevate our league and accelerate our strategic growth," said Unrivaled President Alex Bazzell in a news release. "With Bessemer Venture Partners leading this round, Unrivaled is in an unprecedented position for a new sports league."
Bazzell continued: "Bessemer's world-class leadership, combined with the collective influence of our entire investor group, amplifies our mission and pushes the industry forward. This rise in Unrivaled's valuation reflects investor confidence and proves that athlete-driven models can thrive at the highest levels of business."
Caty Rea, vice president at Bessemer Venture Partners, explained their investment thesis:
"At Bessemer, we've had the privilege of backing many category-defining companies, and we believe Unrivaled is building the next great sports league. What impressed us most is the league's outstanding business performance—achieving both rapid growth and impressive unit economics in its first year of operations—alongside its focus on both athlete advocacy and extraordinary fan engagement. We're thrilled to partner with Unrivaled to take the league to the next level."
With the new capital infusion, Unrivaled has ambitious plans for growth. The league intends to raise its salary cap for the upcoming season and expand from 36 players to 42, creating more opportunities for elite women's basketball players to earn competitive salaries without leaving the United States.
This expansion represents more than just adding players—it's about creating a sustainable ecosystem where women athletes can build careers, earn equity, and benefit from the long-term growth of the league they're helping to build.
One of the most compelling aspects of this funding round is the strong presence of athlete-investors like Serena Williams and Alex Morgan. These investors bring more than capital—they bring:
Athletes investing in athlete-founded companies creates a virtuous cycle that benefits the entire sports ecosystem. As these ventures succeed, they create blueprints for others to follow and demonstrate that athlete-driven business models can compete at the highest levels.
The success of Unrivaled's funding round sends a powerful message to the sports industry and investors worldwide: women's sports are not just a cause to support—they're a lucrative investment opportunity.
1. Proof of Concept
Unrivaled has demonstrated that women's sports properties can achieve strong unit economics, engage audiences, and attract premium corporate partnerships in their first year of operation.
2. Setting New Standards
By offering six-figure salaries and equity stakes, Unrivaled is raising the bar for how women athletes should be compensated, putting pressure on other leagues to follow suit.
3. Attracting Top Talent
With competitive compensation and ownership opportunities, Unrivaled can attract and retain the best players, creating a higher quality product that drives fan engagement and commercial value.
4. Creating Role Models
Athletes like Serena Williams and Alex Morgan investing in women's sports create powerful role models for the next generation of athlete-entrepreneurs.
The Unrivaled story offers valuable lessons for athletes considering entrepreneurial ventures:
Stewart and Collier identified a real problem—inadequate compensation for women basketball players—and created a solution that benefits everyone involved.
Unrivaled didn't just chase growth; they built a business model with strong fundamentals that impressed sophisticated investors like Bessemer Venture Partners.
By giving players equity, Unrivaled aligned everyone's interests with the league's long-term success, creating motivated partners rather than just employees.
Attracting investors like Serena Ventures and Warner Bros. Discovery provides not just capital, but strategic partnerships that can accelerate growth.
The 589 million social media impressions and 11.9 million viewers demonstrate that building an engaged audience is crucial for commercial success.
Unrivaled represents a new model for professional sports leagues—one where athletes are not just participants, but owners and decision-makers. This shift has profound implications for the future of sports business.
As Alex Bazzell noted, "This rise in Unrivaled's valuation reflects investor confidence and proves that athlete-driven models can thrive at the highest levels of business." This statement isn't just about Unrivaled—it's about a fundamental shift in how sports leagues can be structured and governed.
Serena Ventures' investment in Unrivaled, alongside other high-profile backers, marks a pivotal moment in women's sports history. It demonstrates that:
For athletes considering the transition from the field to the boardroom, Unrivaled's success provides a powerful blueprint. It shows that with the right model, strong execution, and strategic partnerships, athlete-entrepreneurs can build businesses that transform industries and create lasting value—both financial and social.
As Angel Reese predicted, five years from now, Unrivaled will likely be bigger than ever. And its success will have paved the way for countless other athlete-driven ventures to flourish, creating a new generation of athlete-moguls who compete just as fiercely in the business world as they did in their respective sports.
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