Serena Williams says her recent investment in Nigerian data provider, Stears, has nothing to do with her love for Africa. Instead, the recently retired tennis star suggested that her decision was more strategic than emotional.

“One of the main reasons I invested in Stears is not because of my love and appreciation for Africa, but because Stears has strategically thought of how to increase the investment community on the continent,” she stated.

“They’re aware of the complexities and have leverage with data and technology, and I truly respect what they’re doing.”

Serena Ventures joined the fundraising, led by MaC Venture Capital, which also includes participation from Melo 7 Tech Partners, Omidyar Group’s Laminate Fund and Cascador.

The financing round places Stears’ total cumulative funding at $4 million after an initial pre-seed round of $650,000 in 2019.

Stears, which started as a consumer data journalism product, now offers financial and economic data to international governments, multilateral organisations and other clients as part of its ambitions to be a pan-African data and intelligence company.

The firm was launched in 2017 by four schoolmates, Michael Famoroti, an economist, Bode Ogunlana, a software engineer, Abdul Abdulrahim, a data scientist, and Preston Ideh, a corporate lawyer.

In a web post, Stears CEO Preston Ideh said the fundraising would enable the firm to build its database on African economies and markets and expand its intelligence team into Kenya, South Africa, and Egypt.