Former ace tennis player Maria Sharapova has acquired an equity stake in social investing platform Public.com. One reason: 40% of the audience on the Public app is female.

Former tennis star Maria Sharapova has picked up an undisclosed stake in Public.com, an investing platform that has more than 1 million users, 90% of which are first time investors. In a nod towards promoting financial literacy, Sharapova said she appreciated how Public broke down the category into simple, educational, user-friendly steps to make investing less intimidating, and helped users take control of their finances more confidently. (Medium)

On the Public platform, stock ownership unlocks an experience of content and education, contextual to the portfolio, created by a community of investors, creators and analysts. Public doesn’t sell trades to market makers or take money from Payment for Order Flow (PFOF), it said in a statement.

Sharapova retired from tennis in 2020 and has since been expanding her business portfolio through multiple investments. She also has a premium confection line branded as Sugarpova.

“We’re so excited to welcome Maria as an investor, long-term partner, and advisor to Public,” said Public.com co-CEO Leif Abraham. “Together, we look forward to helping more people enter the public markets and become better investors. We’re lucky to have Maria’s expertise as not only a tennis legend and pro athlete, but also an experienced entrepreneur, investor, and advocate for women’s financial empowerment.”

Public was founded in September 2019 by co-CEO Jannick Malling.

It has raised $310 million so far, and investors include Accel, Greycroft and Lake Star; actor Will Smith, NFL player JJ Watt; media mogul Shari Redstone; businessman Dick Parsons; and skateboarding legend Tony Hawk.

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Image Credit: Public.com (Medium)