Tech guru launches $100m multi-club fund to buy controlling stake in women’s soccer teams… and project is named Mercury 13 – after female pilots snubbed by NASA’s astronaut program

Tech entrepreneur Victoire Cogevina Reynal has launched a $100 million multi-club fund to buy controlling interests in women’s soccer teams, as she named her project after NASA’s Mercury 13 — an astronaut program that rejected the hiring of female pilots.

Cogevina Reynal — a US-born Greek-Argentine businesswoman perhaps best known for co-founding the football app Gloria — is seeking to raise capital to buy professional women’s teams in Europe and Latin America, according to Bloomberg.

However, deals may prove difficult as some of the clubs she targets are owned and operated by their corresponding men’s organizations, the US financial media reported.

There aren’t many examples of multi-club ownership outside of men’s football, although Cogevina Reynal is rumored to be on the verge of announcing a takeover in England. She is also closing in on investments in Spain and Italy, despite the lack of information on those transactions, according to Bloomberg sources.

DailyMail. com contacted Cogevina Reynal and its representatives for comment.

Women’s football attracts many more investors and fans thanks to the World Cup

Owning a large number of clubs is now quite common in the men’s game after several US investors bought minority and majority stakes in English teams, including Manchester United (the Glazers), Liverpool (Fenway Sports Group) and Chelsea (Todd Boehly).

The appeal of owning several sports teams stems from cost synergies, sharing talented players, and having various sponsorship deals across the board.

Cogevina Reynal starts her fund at a time when women’s football is increasing in value. Teams in England’s Barclay’s Women’s Super League saw revenue grow to £32 million ($41 million) by the end of the 2021-2022 season, according to figures from Deloitte. That’s an increase of 60 percent, the audit, consulting and financial advisory firm reported.

The FIFA Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand also plays a part in the prosperity of the women’s game, as attendance records have been broken at the tournament.

Cubs owner Laura Ricketts is also trying to own several teams, with the Red Stars in her sights

Cogevina Reynal co-founded the first female-only sports agency: SR All Stars

In the US, women’s sports teams are often run separately from male teams, but that’s slowly changing, as Chicago Cubs co-owner Laura Rickets tries to buy the Chicago Red Stars from the National Women’s. Soccer League Club, for a reported fee of $35 million plus.

Mercury 13 does not participate in the acquisition of US-based teams due to their high valuations and costs and because the fund appears to have more growth potential in the women’s game in Europe, said Bloomberg.

Backed by investors with former professional careers in women’s and men’s football, as well as European family offices, the fund is believed to target clubs in other countries, including Argentina, Uruguay and Greece.

Cogevina Reynal is also the Vice President of Women’s Soccer at OneFootball – one of the world’s largest soccer media platforms.

She also started the first women-only sports agency – SR All Stars – and is a gender quality activist with UN Women.