Venus Williams wants to get people walking.
The tennis star, who recently released her health-focused book “Strive,” has joined the app WeWard as a brand ambassador and investor. Through her role, Williams will be featured in a new advertisement, advocating for the app and supporting in-app experiences and events.
The free app incentivizes users to hit their walking goals by rewarding them with cash deposits, gift purchases and charity donations. Since its 2019 launch, the app has welcomed more than 20 million users and launched in 20 new countries last year.
“According to the World Health Organization, 31 percent of adults and 80 percent of adolescents [are] not meeting the required level of movement for physical activity,” Williams said, emphasizing the inactivity crisis. “You have to start your life off with healthy habits. The healthiest, easiest way is to start walking.”
According to WeWard’s stats, users normally increase their walking habits by 25 percent thanks to the incentives. To date, WeWard has rewarded users $20 million in cash, donated $1 million to charity and saved more than 600,000 tons of CO2.
While Williams emphasized her busy schedule and hesitancy to take on new projects, joining WeWard was kismet. Williams happened to meet WeWard founder Yves Benchimol while having lunch in Paris. He quickly pitched her the idea, noting she had been on their “wishlist” of people to work with, and the partnership nearly fell into place right after.
“Sometimes a chance meeting is just the right thing,” Williams said.
“We couldn’t have found a better partner to help us inspire more people to walk,” Benchimol said. “Venus has been such a huge inspiration to so many throughout her multifaceted career, and we’re thrilled to have her energy, advocacy and entrepreneurial spirit onboard to help us drive WeWard’s mission to get more people walking.”
For Williams, walking has always been apart of her daily routine. During tennis training, it’s been her go-to cool down method. She also enjoys taking her dog for walks and taking long strolls when she’s traveling to explore new places. However, her favorite way to approach a walk these days is by using it to catch up on television. Currently, she’s rewatching “Sex and the City” and seeking recommendations for something new.
“The time goes by so quickly,” she said. “I have a default show I’ve been watching the last year — ‘Sex and the City’ — over and over and over again. I relate to those girls.”
She continued: “I just watched it for the first time in the last year, because when it came out, I was kind of young. It was a little racy and when I watched it recently, I was like, ‘Yep that happened to me. Yep, I relate to that.’”
As part of the partnership, WeWard will be donating to Care, a charity that Williams has worked with in the past that addresses global poverty and hunger. WeWard has pledged to donate at least $25,000 and up to $40,000 depending on the results of the Venus Williams Championship monthlong app challenge, where users can increase the amount with their steps.
“I went on a trip with Care to Africa a number of years ago as well,” she said. “I’ve worked with them over the years, so I was excited to be able to support one of the organizations that I literally care about.”
It was this combination of movement and charitable action that drives Williams’ involvement with WeWard.
“The easy movement, coupled with the opportunity to give back is so powerful and that you can choose who you’d like to give back to [and] you’re in control — that is so easy,” she said. “I just want to make sure that people get moving.”
