Red Bull Italy SailGP team acquired by Grazioli-Venier's Muse Sport consortium

New York Times

27-05-2025

A consortium partially led by Muse Capital founding partner Assia Grazioli-Venier has acquired the Red Bull Italy SailGP team.
Known for backing consumer technology companies, women's health and women's sports, Grazioli-Venier is setting sail with a team valued at $45 million through her sports advisory arm, Muse Sport.
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The acquisition marks a first for the global racing championship, establishing Red Bull Italy as the first SailGP team with a female-led ownership group.
Grazioli-Venier has partnered with luxury brand entrepreneur Gian Luca Passi de Preposulo, who will serve as chairman of the board, and two-time America's Cup winner Jimmy Spithill, who joins as co-owner and CEO to lead the consortium.
The investor group features an impressive roster of sports industry leaders and seasoned professionals, including Alexander Gilkes, Heather Karatz, Peter Delgrosso and Dr Jennifer Ashton, as well as Hollywood's own Anne Hathaway. The team is valued at $45 million.
'I've made a career of being ahead of the curve of trends the last two decades, and have a knack for spotting talent and identifying things before most people — from streaming 20 years ago to women's healthcare nine years ago,' Grazioli-Venier told The Athletic.
After establishing Muse Sport, Grazioli-Venier was an early investor in the emerging sports and women's sports boom, buying a stake in Washington Spirit in 2021 when Michele Kang was a minority investor. She also invested in Miami Pickleball, and Haley Rosen's media platform Just Women's Sports.
More recently, she became chair of the board of the Women's Pro Baseball League (WPBL).
Grazioli-Venier's father competed in the inaugural Whitbread Race in 1973 (now known as the Ocean Race) and first came across the United States SailGP team when it came up for sale two years ago. She was not immediately interested.
'But then, as soon as I looked under the hood, I realized it was completely the opposite. This is not our grandfather sailing, or even my own father's sailing. This is not even sailing. It's foiling.
'Commercially sustainable, global, all year round, exhilarating, digital and experiential and with core values that aligned with ours at Muse — men and women on the same team through the Women's Pathway programme, and climate sustainability as 'powered by nature'.'
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After investing in November 2023, Grazioli-Venier hailed the sport's dedication to diversity and is now in the process of selling her minority stake in the U.S. team.
Founded by Larry Ellison, a tech entrepreneur and one of the richest men in the world, SailGP features 12 identical F50 catamarans competing in high-speed, two-day events around the world. Across its first four seasons, SailGP grew from six teams and five events to 12 teams and 12 events.
The league's co-founders, Ellison and five-time America's Cup winner Russell Coutts, were the original majority owners of SailGP, but with Red Bull Italy team's acquisition, 10 of 12 teams on the start-line are now privately funded, with future boats joining the league all independently owned and financed.
Two years ago, SailGP was selling teams between $5 million and $10 million. Last year, former Milwaukee Bucks owner Marc Lasry led a group of investors and acquired the US team for $35 million, the largest sale at the time. In March, Real Madrid superstar Kylian Mbappe bought a stake in the France SailGP team.
The league is founded on a few core principles: a cost cap and shared technology across all teams. 'It's a commercially sound, sustainable business model, which is very rare in sports, especially in racing,' Grazioli-Venier says. 'The fact that you could break even by year two, and potentially pay dividends to investors, is almost unheard of. Most sports teams burn through cash and rely on capital injections. This model flips that script, it's sustainable and smart, and that's why it is very interesting to me.'
SailGP is also the only professional sports league where women and men are fully integrated, competing together on teams. For Grazioli-Venier, it was also important that the league increased gender equity in sailing by accelerating the training and development of female athletes. Since the launch of the 'Women's Pathway' in 2021, female athletes have been on board all F50 boats in every SailGP race.
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On the commercial side, with Red Bull as title partner, Red Bull Italy's ambition is to become one of the most innovative and brand-driven presences in the championship. Grazioli-Venier explains that their 'Made in Italy' consortium blends expertise and cutting-edge technology, but culturally resonant storytelling and top-class entertainment.
'Partnering with Gian Luca Passi de Preposulo, who brings extensive experience in luxury brands, was an essential component for making this a successful endeavor,' she says.
SailGP has grown its audience in the U.S. since its inaugural season in 2019. This season, CBS featured 54 hours of SailGP across its networks. The league said last season that 1.78 million tuned into November's Spain Sail GP on CBS, the largest linear TV audience in the U.S. for any race on water in 30 years, including the Olympics and America's Cup.
This season, the 2025 KPMG Australia Sail Grand Prix in Sydney delivered the league's largest global TV audience, reaching 21.1 million viewers worldwide: 'It's always been a digital-first product as well as a broadcast-first product as well as an experiential product,' Grazioli-Venier says.
'They've essentially mastered every aspect of fan engagement — wherever the audience is, they're there. And Larry's working on exciting innovations to elevate the experience even further.'