Serena Williams Invests An Undisclosed Sum In Nigerian Fintech Company Esusu
Serena Williams invests an undisclosed sum in Nigerian fintech company Esusu
Serena Williams, the tennis star, has invested an undisclosed sum in the Series A round of Esusu Financial, a Fintech startup based in the United States.
The $10 million funding round was led by Motley Fool Ventures, a $150 million venture capital fund focused on technology. As part of the funding round, the tennis superstar provided backing through her venture capital firm, Serena Ventures.
This investment comes less than a year after Esusu raised $2.3 million in a seed extension round and $1.6 million in an earlier seed round led by Acumen in 2019. With this round, the rent reporting startup has raised a total of more than $14 million in venture capital funding.
Williams revealed that she is investing in Esusu because it empowers others and creates opportunities.
“I founded Serena Ventures to invest in diverse founders and early-stage companies that outperform and make a positive impact while also empowering others and creating opportunities. Esusu is unquestionably one of those businesses,” Williams stated.
Serena has also invested in Andela, a Nigerian developer training and outsourcing company, Coinbase, and Gobble.
Establishing pathways for financial inclusion
Esusu is a fintech start-up founded in 2018 by Samir Goel and Nigerian-born Abbey Wemimo. It enables renters to build and improve credit by reporting their rent payments to credit bureaus.
According to Goel, the company's concept was inspired by his personal experiences as an immigrant with no credit and few financial resources.
“When my parents moved here, pursuing the American dream proved to be more difficult than it should have been. I recall simply watching my parents perform miracles despite their lack of credit and financial resources. Abbey and I like to say that our experiences inspire us,” Goel explained.
Ollen Douglass, Managing Director of Motley Fool Ventures, believes in the company's potential as well. According to him, "Esusu is an excellent example of a forward-thinking fintech company leveraging technology to provide scalable and critical financial solutions to the underserved population."
He added that the company's inclusive credit building offerings can help low-to-moderate-income households across the United States gain access to credit.
More than two million households
Esusu now serves approximately 2 million households and collaborates with 30% of the largest landlords on the National Multifamily Housing Council in all 50 states of the United States. This is an increase from the over 200,000 rental units it covered last year in over 30 states.
Goldman Sachs, Related Companies, Winn Residential, Camden Property Trust, and Starwood Capital Group are among its partners.
According to Wemimo, the latest round of funding will be used to scale the business through product development, talent acquisition, and increased cybersecurity.
“This Series A financing enables Esusu to accelerate growth through product innovation, talent acquisition, and the development of the market's most comprehensive financial health platform for low-to-moderate-income families,” he said.
He also revealed that the goal for the next year is to cover 5 million households.
In conclusion
Serena Williams' investment in Esusu is unsurprising. The company's co-founders previously stated that they were researching extraordinary Black and female-led venture capital firms in order to advocate for equality.
With increased cash flow, the company is poised to expand its product offering beyond simply granting credit access to assisting a large number of Americans in building wealth.
