The Rolex SailGP Championship announced Friday that French footballer Kylian Mbappé’s Coalition Capital is investing into the France SailGP team. The announcement comes one week after SailGp announced DJ Khaled was joining the sport as its Chief Hype Officer.
In addition to the investment by Coalition Capital, Mbappé’s ‘Inspired by KM’ association will also become the French SailGP team’s official charity partner. The French team is operated by K-Challenge and co-CEOs Bruno Dubois and Stephan Kandler.
“We are excited to be on board with this new adventure with the France SailGP Team, alongside Accor and other investors,” Mbappé said in a statement. “I’m also proud that IBKM has the opportunity to engage more young people around the world through this relationship.”
“We couldn’t be more excited to welcome Kylian Mbappé into our growing SailGP family of partners and investors — he’s undeniably one of the most influential athletes of our time, and an inspiration to sports fans across the globe,” read a statement by SailGP CEO Sir Russell Coutts.
The French team, led by driver Quentin Delapierre, is one of the original six SailGP teams dating back to the league’s establishment in 2019. Known as “Les Bleus,” the French team currently holds the SailGP race speed record with a top speed of 99.94 km/h (or 62.01 mph), which they hit at Saint-Tropez during Season 3.
The announcement comes ahead of the first of SailGP’s slate of U.S. events for 2025, during which DJ Khaled will be serving as an ambassador for the sport as Chief Hype Officer. Through his campaign, Khaled will spotlight the league and its U.S. Sail Grand Prixs in Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York.
The Los Angeles Sail Grand Prix will be air this weekend on CBS Sports Network, with coverage of Day 1 airing at 11 p.m. ET on Saturday before live coverage of Day 2 on Sunday at 5 p.m. ET.
