Alexis Ohanian is an American internet entrepreneur, investor, and sports-business founder. He is best known for co-founding Reddit, one of the most visited websites in the world. Today, he is also known for his venture capital firm Seven Seven Six, his growing role in women’s sports, and his marriage to tennis legend Serena Williams.
This Alexis Ohanian biography covers his early life, his education, his full career timeline, and what he has been doing in 2026. Every fact here is based on public research, and any unclear detail is marked as such.
Quick Facts About Alexis Ohanian
| Category | Details |
|---|---|
| Full Name | Alexis Kerry Ohanian |
| Date of Birth | April 24, 1983 |
| Age (2026) | 43 |
| Birthplace | Brooklyn, New York City, USA |
| Raised In | Columbia/Ellicott City, Maryland |
| Nationality | American |
| Heritage | Armenian (father’s side) and German (mother’s side) |
| Education | University of Virginia (Commerce and History) |
| Occupation | Entrepreneur, investor, venture capitalist |
| Known For | Co-founding Reddit; founder of Seven Seven Six and Athlos |
| Spouse | Serena Williams (married November 16, 2017) |
| Children | Two daughters, Olympia and Adira |
| Net Worth | Estimated at $150 million, as of 2026 (unconfirmed exact figure) |
| Current Base | Florida, USA |
| Last Updated | 2026 |
Early Life and Family Background
Alexis Ohanian was born in Brooklyn, New York, on April 24, 1983. He grew up as the only child of Chris Ohanian, whose parents were Armenian refugees who survived the Armenian Genocide, and Anke Ohanian, who was born in Hamburg, Germany. Because of this mixed background, Ohanian grew up hearing German at home while also staying connected to his Armenian roots through a summer camp run by the Armenian General Benevolent Union.
His family moved from Brooklyn to a Maryland suburb while he was young. He attended Howard High School in Columbia, Maryland, where he was chosen to give his class’s graduation speech in 2001. A plaque marking this speech was later installed near his school, and a separate plaque now sits at a Waffle House booth in Virginia, where he decided to become an entrepreneur.
Ohanian has said his interest in technology began in middle school, when his parents bought him a dial-up modem. He later took community college programming classes and built free websites for nonprofit groups, all while still living at home. His mother died from brain cancer in 2008, a loss Ohanian has spoken about publicly as one of the hardest moments of his early career.
Education
Ohanian studied at the University of Virginia, where he double-majored in commerce and history and minored in German. He originally considered a career in law. According to widely reported accounts, he walked out of the LSAT exam partway through, went to a nearby Waffle House with his college roommate, Steve Huffman, and decided to start a company instead. He has said in interviews that, looking back, he wishes he had stuck with computer science given the career he eventually built.
Career Timeline
Founding Reddit (2005)
After graduating from UVA in 2005, Ohanian and Huffman pitched a food-ordering app idea to the startup accelerator Y Combinator. That idea was rejected, but the pair returned with a new concept: an online bulletin board meant to become the “front page of the internet.” This became Reddit, which joined Y Combinator’s very first group of startups in 2005. Reddit was acquired by publisher Condé Nast in 2006 for an amount reported to be between $10 million and $20 million.
Life After the Sale
Ohanian stayed connected to Reddit as a board member after the sale. He spent time working in microfinance in Armenia, helped launch the travel site Hipmunk, and became a partner at Y Combinator, where he was given the title “Ambassador to the East” for mentoring East Coast founders. In 2010, he also co-founded the early-stage investment firm Initialized Capital.
Returning to Reddit and Stepping Back
Ohanian returned to Reddit full-time as executive chairman in 2015, working alongside Huffman to run the now-independent company. He stepped back in 2018 to return to investing. In June 2020, following the murder of George Floyd, he resigned from Reddit’s board and publicly asked the company to replace his seat with a Black board member. Reddit later named entrepreneur Michael Seibel to the board.
Seven Seven Six and the Shift to Sports
In 2021, Ohanian launched a new venture capital firm called Seven Seven Six, often written as 776. The firm has grown to manage close to a billion dollars in assets and has increasingly focused on women’s and emerging sports. Ohanian became the founding control owner of Angel City FC, a Los Angeles-based team in the National Women’s Soccer League, in 2020. In 2024, he launched Athlos, a women’s-only track and field competition that pays some of the largest prize purses in the sport. In May 2025, he bought a 10 percent stake in Chelsea Women FC and joined its board.
2026 Developments
This is where many existing biographies fall short, since they rarely track what Ohanian has done this year. In 2026, Athlos expanded internationally for the first time, holding an event at StoneX Stadium in London in September, alongside its return to New York. Seven Seven Six also acquired ONIT, a licensed college-sports trading card company, continuing the firm’s push into sports-related businesses. Separately, Digg, the news-sharing site Ohanian co-purchased with original founder Kevin Rose in March 2025, opened to the public in January 2026 after a period of invite-only testing.
Business Ventures and Investments
Through Initialized Capital and later Seven Seven Six, Ohanian has invested in a wide range of companies, including Instacart, Opendoor, Cruise, and Zenefits in the early years, and more recently in ticket-resale platform Ticket Wallet and plant-based food startup Simulate. He has also invested through his sports holdings in the LA Golf Club, which competes in the TGL golf league, a format that has also drawn attention on television broadcasts.
He is also the author of “Without Their Permission,” a book about internet entrepreneurship published in 2013 that reached the Wall Street Journal’s hardcover business bestseller list.
Personal Life
Ohanian became engaged to tennis champion Serena Williams in December 2016, and the couple married in New Orleans in November 2017. They have two daughters, Alexis Olympia, born in 2017, and Adira River, born in 2023. The family is based in Florida.
After his first daughter’s birth, Ohanian took 16 weeks of paternity leave and later wrote publicly about the experience, becoming a vocal advocate for paid family leave in the United States. He has lobbied lawmakers on this issue and discussed it in interviews and opinion pieces.
In November 2024, Ohanian had surgery to remove thyroid nodules as a precaution against possible cancer. Details about his current health status beyond this event are not widely confirmed, so this biography does not speculate further.
Awards and Recognition
Ohanian was named to Forbes’ “30 Under 30” list in both 2011 and 2012. Forbes also nicknamed him the “Mayor of the Internet” for his advocacy work, including his opposition to the SOPA and PIPA internet bills in 2011 and 2012. He has delivered commencement speeches at Johns Hopkins University and his alma mater, the University of Virginia.
Net Worth (Estimated, 2026)
Alexis Ohanian’s net worth is estimated at around $150 million as of 2026. This figure comes from third-party financial estimates and is not an officially confirmed number, since Ohanian has not released his exact finances publicly. Readers should treat this figure as an approximation rather than a verified fact.
How This Was Researched
I researched this biography using Wikipedia’s sourced timeline, verified news coverage from outlets like CNBC, Forbes, and TechCrunch, official Athlos and Seven Seven Six press materials, and public interviews Ohanian has given over the years. I also reviewed several existing online biographies of Ohanian and found that most repeat the same career facts without covering his 2026 activity, such as Athlos’s London expansion or the Digg relaunch, so I made sure to include those updates here. Where a detail, like his current health status, was not clearly confirmed by reliable sources, I noted that instead of guessing.
FAQ Section
Q: What is Alexis Ohanian famous for?
A: He is best known as the co-founder of Reddit. More recently, he is known for founding Seven Seven Six, an investment firm, and Athlos, a women’s track and field event, and for being married to Serena Williams.
Q: How old is Alexis Ohanian in 2026?
A: He was born on April 24, 1983, which makes him 43 years old in 2026.
Q: Is Alexis Ohanian still involved with Reddit?
A: No. He resigned from Reddit’s board in June 2020 and is no longer part of the company’s leadership.
Q: What is Alexis Ohanian’s net worth?
A: His net worth is estimated at around $150 million as of 2026. This is an unconfirmed, third-party estimate, not an official figure.
Q: Who is Alexis Ohanian married to?
A: He is married to tennis champion Serena Williams. They married in November 2017 and have two daughters.
Q: What is Athlos?
A: Athlos is a women’s-only track and field competition series founded by Ohanian in 2024. It expanded internationally in 2026 with an event in London.
Accuracy Note
This biography is based on publicly available information, including interviews, official company statements, and verified news coverage. If you spot anything outdated or incorrect, please let us know so we can update it.
Written and researched by Laura Castillo, contributor at Icons Golf Cart.