Inside Serena Williams and Alexis Ohanian’s sports-tech fortune: she’s the second highest-paid woman athlete, has lucrative deals with Nike and Audemars Piguet, while hubby sold Reddit for millions
There are power couples in Hollywood like Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds, in politics like Barack and Michelle Obama, in pop music like Beyoncé and Jay-Z – and also in sports-tech, like Serena Williams and Alexis Ohanian.
Williams, one of the greatest tennis players of all time, has a net worth of more than US$260 million, thanks in large part to earning more than US$94 million in career prize money – considerably more than any other professional women’s tennis player. Meanwhile, her husband Ohanian has an estimated US$70 million net worth himself, giving the power couple a combined value of US$330 million.
Read on to find out how the sports-tech power couple make and spend their money …
Serena Williams’ lucrative tennis career, brand deals and other projects
Williams has earned millions from endorsem*nt deals with companies like Nike, Beats by Dre, Gatorade, JPMorgan Chase, Tempur-Pedic, Aston Martin, Audemars Piguet, Intel and Wilson. Nike recently honoured their long-time partnership by naming a building after her.
Williams is still the second highest-paid woman in sports, just after Naomi Osaka, making US$45.9 million last year. All but US$1 million came from off-court earnings. She says she has never been motivated by money and never thought about checks. She even tried to deposit her first million-dollar check through a bank drive-through – and failed.
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She has her own clothing line with HSN, the Serena Williams Signature Statement collection.
Also, she’s served on the board of SurveyMonkey – an online survey tool – since May 2017.
She was also an executive producer on the film King Richard (2021), starring Will Smith as her father.
Her venture capital firm, Serena Ventures, raised US$111 million in its inaugural fund. Her partner in the endeavour is Alison Stilman.
Alexis Ohanian is the tech guru who founded Reddit
In the summer of 2015, Williams began dating tech guru Alexis Ohanian. Ohanian founded the popular social media platform Reddit in 2005 and sold it to Condé Nast for at least US$10 million a year later. He was 23 years old at the time.
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The Reddit deal gave Ohanian “more money for me than my entire family – my mother and father – had made in their entire lives”, he said. Ohanian rejoined Reddit as an executive chairman in 2014. The website, the third-most-visited in the US, is worth more than US$10 billion.
He’s since resigned his post on the Reddit board and urged the company to fill his seat with a Black candidate instead. Since Reddit, he founded Initialized Capital, an early-stage venture capital firm that boasts over US$700 million in assets under management. But he left in June 2020 and a year later, he announced a new VC firm called 776.
He also helped start Breadpig, a company that offers supportive services for creators and their companies. His official title was “founder and chief swine defender”. And he served as the “head marketing dude and Hipmunk doodler” for Hipmunk, a travel search website.
The duo met late in the spring of 2015 at the Rome Cavalieri, a luxury hotel that boasts the only restaurant in the Italian capital with three Michelin stars. Ohanian sat down next to Williams outside by the pool, and after trying to trick him into thinking there was a rat at his table, she and her friends invited him to join them. Ohanian had never watched Williams play – and wasn’t much of a tennis fan – but he agreed to come to her match later that day.
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Ohanian and Williams went on their first date in Paris the following month. Ohanian then went to watch her play in the French Open later in the week.
Ohanian proposed at the Cavalieri – where they first met – on December 10, 2016. Her engagement ring is reportedly worth more than US$2 million.
In early 2017, the couple found out Williams was pregnant. Then, at eight weeks pregnant, she dominated the Australian Open to win her 23rd Grand Slam and earn US$2.7 million.
Around a month after Olympia’s birth in 2017, Ohanian and Williams tied the knot in an opulent wedding in Louisiana. Williams wore an estimated US$3.5 million worth of jewellery at the ceremony. She also changed dresses three times and wore sparkly Nike shoes during the reception, which also had a carousel in the centre of the room.
Less than a year later, Williams and Ohanian attended one of the only ceremonies more extravagant than their own: the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle at Windsor Castle in England.
Alexis Olympia Ohanian Jr is Ohanian and Williams’ daughter
Following in the footsteps of her mother, Olympia is already a burgeoning fashion icon, mixing Burberry dresses with Nike kicks like it’s nothing. She goes yachting in sailor’s outfits and even got her own tennis gear from one of Williams’ most important partners, Wilson. Olympia became the youngest person to grace the cover of Vogue, at three months old.
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Williams and Ohanian bought a piece of the Angel City football team in LA and put some of it in Olympia’s name, making her the youngest owner of a professional sports team.
What does the couple splurge on?
Williams and Ohanian have a mutual love of American football. Williams and her sister, Venus, became partial owners of the Miami Dolphins in 2009. And Ohanian’s first purchase after selling Reddit was field-level season tickets to Washington’s football franchise for himself and his father.
Ohanian is a bit of a collector, including comics and video games.
At one point, Ohanian, Williams and their daughter lived in a US$6.7 million home in Beverly Hills, California, but they’ve since listed that property for sale. They spend most of their time in Florida, where they own a stunning property in Palm Beach Gardens. The house includes an art gallery.
They also have homes in Paris and Bel Air.
Williams also has a taste for luxury cars. As Aston Martin’s chief sporting officer, she appears to have chosen the US$300,000 Vanquish for her own.
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And despite their busy lives, they still find time for family and adventures, including a recent trip to Greece.
Though they lead a lavish lifestyle, Ohanian and Williams are also very philanthropic.
Williams established the Serena Williams Fund to promote equity for all people. She’s a United Nations goodwill ambassador and she has supported Colin Kaepernick in his activism and protesting during his time in the NFL.
Ohanian, too, supports Kap. He made a US$1 million pledge to Kaepernick’s Know Your Rights Camp using his Reddit stock gains. Ohanian is also an outspoken advocate for digital rights and has donated money to tech training initiatives.
Expanding their family
Despite their fabulous lifestyles and incredible careers, Williams and Ohanian seemingly always put their family first. As the couple has felt the itch to grow their family, Williams found it difficult to make time for her tennis career. In August 2022, she announced her intention to retire after the US Open.
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But there is plenty to come from Williams, who has called investing in start-ups a passion of hers. Serena Ventures has funded 16 unicorns – companies valued at US$1 billion or more – including MasterClass, Tonal, Impossible Foods, Noom and Esusu.
In an essay for Vogue, Williams said she became interested in investing when she was shocked to learn that less than two per cent of all venture capital money was invested in women.
Williams told Forbes her goal is beyond just being an endorsem*nt athlete, saying: “I want to be in the infrastructure. I want to be the brand, instead of just being the face.”
In the meantime, she also announced at the recent 2023 Met Gala that she is expecting baby number 2. Superwoman indeed.
This article originally appeared on Insider.
