Serena Ventures Leads $3 Million Seed Round in Fashion Tech Startup Trace

Serena Ventures, the venture capital firm founded by 23-time Grand Slam singles champion Serena Williams, has led a $3 million seed round in Trace, a fashion technology startup that lets consumers arrange clothing rentals and resales before they even buy the items. WWD first reported the deal, and Shakti VC also participated in the round.

The investment backs a newly launched marketplace with an unusual proposition: shoppers can list clothing and accessories for potential resale or rental before purchasing them. Trace, founded by Harvard Business School graduates Katie Pfleger and Ella Rubin, connects consumers interested in the same items so they can offset the original purchase price through shared ownership and resale opportunities, according to AfroTech.

Who is behind Trace?

Pfleger previously worked at Etsy, the e-commerce marketplace known for handmade and vintage goods. Rubin helped launch Walmart's online grocery business. The two founders met at Harvard Business School before building Trace.

Williams told WWD that Serena Ventures backed the startup for three reasons: its market potential, its business model, and its founding team.

"Trace is transforming the way people shop," Williams said, according to the publication.

How does the platform work?

Unlike traditional resale platforms, Trace lets users gauge potential demand before committing to a purchase. A shopper pastes a product link into the app, and artificial intelligence automatically generates a listing using the item's details.

Other users can then express interest in renting or buying the item at an agreed-upon price and date. That interest helps reduce the original shopper's cost of ownership — effectively letting buyers know in advance whether a piece of clothing can earn money back as a rental or a resale.

The fee structure, as reported by WWD:

• Buyers pay a 10% service fee plus a $3 protection fee.
• Renters pay a 10% service fee plus a protection fee ranging from $5 to $12.
• Sellers pay no commission on resales but pay a 15% commission on rentals.

The model positions Trace as a middle ground between fast fashion consumption and the secondhand market, where sellers typically list items only after owning and often wearing them. Trace flips that sequence, building resale and rental demand into the purchase decision itself.

What does this mean for Serena Ventures' portfolio?

The Trace deal adds to a growing venture capital portfolio for Williams. Through Serena Ventures, the tennis champion has invested in businesses across technology, healthcare, and consumer industries, with a track record that includes backing companies founded by entrepreneurs from historically underrepresented communities.

The firm's ambitions are large. Williams has publicly said she is looking to fund the next trillion-dollar company, a goal that frames individual seed checks like the $3 million Trace round as early positions in a much broader strategy.

What's next for fashion resale?

Trace enters a fashion resale market that has already normalized secondhand shopping, but its pre-purchase model is a different bet. The startup is wagering that consumers will plan the entire lifecycle of a garment — buy, rent out, resell — before checkout, and that AI-generated listings can make that planning frictionless.

If the model works, Trace could give budget-conscious shoppers a way to recover part of their purchasing costs while expanding access to clothing through rentals and secondhand sales. The seed capital from Serena Ventures and Shakti VC now has to prove that demand can be measured before a single item ships.