France and Real Madrid star Kylian Mbappe has added to his growing investment portfolio by buying a stake in the France SailGP Team, one of 12 national teams in the global sailing series.
Mbappe’s move into the high-speed world of catamaran racing follows his recent investments in German electronics firm Loewe, luxury watch-shopping platform Wristcheck and French Ligue 2 club Caen.
The value of the Paris-born striker’s investment has not been revealed but his “Inspired by KM” foundation will become the team’s official charity partner.
In a media release to announce the partnership on Friday, Mbappe said he was “excited to be on board with this new adventure” and name-checked French hospitality company Accor, which sponsors both him and the France SailGP Team.
“Through Inspired By KM, I want to reach out to young people around the world and give them the strength to believe in their dreams,” the 26-year-old added.
“With our ‘We Care for All program’, we provide concrete support and hope to those who need it most. Together, we are building a future where every young person can write their own story and achieve excellence.”
Spectator’s at February’s Australia SailGP (Brett Phibbs for SailGP. Handout image supplied by SailGP)
Launched in 2019 by five-time America’s Cup winner Sir Russell Coutts from New Zealand and U.S. tech billionaire Larry Ellison, SailGP is an annual championship between teams racing in identical 50-foot catamarans that have wing-like foils mounted either side of their hulls.
As they pick up speed, the crafts’ hulls are lifted out of the water, reducing drag. The French team is seventh in the 2025 standings after three of 13 grands prix but it holds SailGP’s top-speed record, 99.94 kilometres per hour, set in Saint-Tropez in 2023.
The secret to SailGP’s rising profile is that the races take place close enough to the shore to create an F1-style viewing experience, with increasing numbers of fans watching at home, too. CBS Sports has recently extended its deal to broadcast the series in the U.S. having seen audiences grow every year.
So far this season, SailGP has been to Dubai, Sydney and Auckland, and news of Mbappe’s arrival in the fleet comes on the eve of the Rolex Los Angeles Sail Grand Prix, the first of back-to-back weekends in California, with the season’s fifth round in San Francisco Bay on March 22-23.
The seven-time French champion and 2018 World Cup winner is not the first landlubbing athlete to clamber aboard, though.
In 2023, four-time F1 champion Sebastian Vettel bought a stake in the German team, while heavyweight boxer Deontay Wilder, ex-USMNT striker Jozy Altidore and several NFL stars joined a syndicate led by former Milwaukee Bucks owner Marc Lasry that bought the U.S. team.
Mbappe is, however, the richest athlete to join the party. According to American business outlet Forbes, the Frenchman was the sixth highest-paid athlete in 2024, with total earnings of $110million. This would appear to make Sport Illustrated’s recent estimate of his net worth to be rather conservative at $180m.
“We couldn’t be more excited to welcome Kylian Mbappe 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,” said Coutts, who is now SailGP’s chief executive.
Mbappe won the World Cup in 2018 (Matthias Hangst/Getty Images)
When the series started six years ago, it only had half a dozen teams and they were all owned by the competition’s parent company, F50 League. Now, most of the teams are controlled by new investors, including this season’s new entrants, Mubadala Brazil and Red Bull Italy, named after their main sponsors.
Emirates GBR, the British team, was the first to be sold to external investors in 2022, when Sir Ben Ainslie, the most successful sailor in Olympic history, joined up with commodities trader Chris Blake and property developer Peter Green to take full control in a deal valued at $40m.
Ainslie is now the team’s CEO, with his America’s Cup partner Dylan Fletcher actually driving the catamaran. And it is a partnership that appears to be working, as the British team top the rankings with 27 points going into the Los Angeles GP, with Australia three points back and Spain a further four behind in third.
After this month’s racing in California, the series goes to Rio de Janeiro in early May, before returning to North America, with the Mubadala New York Sail Grand Prix on June 7-8.
Portsmouth hosts the British GP on July 19-20, with further races in Germany, France, Switzerland and Spain, before the season finale in Abu Dhabi where the top three teams will compete for the SailGP trophy and $2m in prize money.
(Top photo: Denis Doyle/Getty Images)
