Venus Williams is most famous for being one of the best tennis players of all time, but shes also a prolific angelinvestor. In her latest business move, Williams has backed French startup WeWard.WeWard is a free app that offers real-world rewards for walking. It tracks your steps and lets you earn points (called Wards), which can be exchanged for gift cards, donations, or discounts. The goal is to encourage people to be more active while benefiting from their daily movement.Williams has invested an undisclosed sum in the company and will also act as an ambassador. WeWard, meanwhile, has committed to donating $25,000 to her charity, CARE, and will host a month-long Venus Williams Championship where users can unlock up to $40,000 in donations by reaching step milestones.A large part of staying well and active is simply by moving your body whichever way you can, and with WeWard, walking becomes a fun and rewarding experience, said Williams, whose portfolio also includes French social investing app Shares and Pelago, a British startup tackling substance abuse via virtual clinics.The of EU techThe latest rumblings from the EU tech scene, a story from our wise ol' founder Boris, and some questionable AI art. It's free, every week, in your inbox. Sign up now!Beyond physical rewards, users can collect virtual trading cards dubbed WeCards placed at specific locations on the map, a bit like Pokmon Go. Users can compete with friends or join virtual leagues, tracking their progress on leaderboards and earning gold, silver, or bronze medals based on activity levels.The idea is to incentivise people to walk further and more often and it seems to be working. Approximately 6.5 million WeCards are collected daily by the roughly 20 million people who use the app, the company said.Walking plansWeWards CEO, Yves Benchimol, founded the startup in 2019 alongside Nicolas Hardy and Tanguy de la Villegeorges. The company is almost completely bootstrapped, save for a few hundred thousand euros in seed funding raised in 2020.While WeWard has not raised much capital itself, it has handed plenty of money out. To date, the company has given $20mn in cash back to users and $1mn to charity partners, it claims.WeWard generates revenue through retail partnerships, advertising, and features like Playtime, where users can earn additional rewards by engaging with third-party mobile games directly through the app.WeWard is just one of a cohort of pro-walking fitness startups. Rivals include Walk15, a Lithuanian company thats trialled its tech with public healthcare services. Walk15s co-founder and CEO, Vlada Musvydait-Vilciauske, told TNW last year that she wants to create a pharmacy for walking. Story by Sin Geschwindt Sin is a climate and energy reporter at TNW. From nuclear fusion to escooters, he covers the length and breadth of Europe's clean tech ecos (show all) Sin is a climate and energy reporter at TNW. From nuclear fusion to escooters, he covers the length and breadth of Europe's clean tech ecosystem. He's happiest sourcing a scoop, investigating the impact of emerging technologies, and even putting them to the test. Sin has five years journalism experience and holds a dual degree in media and environmental science from the University of Cape Town, South Africa. Get the TNW newsletterGet the most important tech news in your inbox each week.Also tagged with