As per an exclusive report from The Times today, Alexis Ohanian has bought an 8 per cent stake in Chelsea FC Women, worth £20m and thus valuing the club at £245m. Chelsea FCW were carved out from underneath the Chelsea FC umbrella last fiscal year.
(This was originally reported as a 10 per cent stake, as seen screenshotted in Ohanian’s own tweet; the report was later revised to 8, so we’ll go with that. At 10 per cent, the deal had valued the team at £200m, which was incidentally the exact line-item recorded in the Chelsea FC books to help balance them for 2023-24 PSR.)
Ohanian is famous for a few reasons, but most notably for co-founding Reddit and for being married to Serena Williams. He was also part of the ownership group who launched the Angel City FC expansion franchise in the NWSL in 2020, which became the most valuable women’s sports team in the world when Walt Disney CEO Bob Iger bough a majority stake in them last year. That valuation ($250m) has now been eclipsed by this deal with Chelsea. Ohanian continues to serve on the Angel City FC board and will also serve on the Chelsea FCW board.
Money makes the (sports) world go round, and it’s certainly great to see bigger and bigger investments coming into women’s football specifically.
I’ve bet big on women’s sports before—and I’m doing it again.
I'm proud to announce that I'm joining @ChelseaFCW as an investor and board member. I'm honored for the chance to help this iconic club become America's favorite @BarclaysWSL team and much, much more. pic.twitter.com/65YYULE7QM
— Alexis Ohanian (@alexisohanian) May 14, 2025