Stock trading app Shares adds Serena and Venus Williams as investors. Here’s the 19-slide pitch deck it used to raise a $40 million Series B.


Shares founding team

  • Tennis icons Venus and Serena Williams have become investors in social trading app Shares.
  • The London-based startup recently closed a $40 million round led by Peter Thiel’s Valar Ventures.
  • Check out the 19-slide pitch deck Shares used to raise its $40 million Series B round.

Two of the most iconic tennis players ever Venus and Serena Williams have become investors in Shares, a trading platform that aims to make investing more accessible.

The London-based startup, which was founded in 2021, blends stock trading with social networking by allowing users to post their trades and interact with friends and family. Shares says its app enables investors to learn from one another, reducing barriers to entry in the process.

The company has raised around $90 million to date, with Peter Thiel’s Valar Ventures among its most prominent backers. Its founding team is a mix of former staffers from the likes of Revolut, Bumble, Coinbase, and Morgan Stanley.

Serena, who has won 23 Grand Slams (the most in the Open Era), has invested more in startups in recent years and is a cofounder of Serena Ventures, a fund launched in 2014 to support early-stage tech companies.  

“The first time I heard about Shares I was blown away by the vision,” Serena Williams said in a release.

“It is rare to find companies that are equally as passionate about opening up opportunities and breaking barriers to entry that have prevented traditional spaces like investment from being totally inclusive.”

Serena also said that she believed everyone, especially women, should have the tools and access to information to take control of their finances.

Venus Williams described Shares as a “creative and playful solution” to a “very real problem.”

“While we both have a broad range of interests when it comes to companies we support, there is a common thread throughout which falls on the intersection where passion meets purpose,” she said.

The Williams sisters will also act as the company’s first ambassadors.

Their investment comes after Shares closed its $40 million Series B in July. The startup claims to have around 150,000 users in the UK and plans to use the funding from its Series B round to expand further into Europe and other continents in the coming years.

Check out Shares’ Series B pitch deck below:



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