Wikipedia

Victoire Cogevina

Victoire Cogevina Reynal is an American businesswoman set on democratizing soccer accessibility through software technology.[1] She is the co-CEO of Mercury 13, an investment group in women's soccer teams that manages more than $100 million.[2][3] She was the vice president of women's football at OneFootball,[4] one of the world's largest football media platforms. During her professional career, she co-founded Gloria, a start-up that counted itself in the 2% of Silicon Valley companies led by women[5] and sold in September 2022.[6] She has been speaker in many conferences about women, technology and sport.[7]

Victoire Cogevina
Victoire Cogevina Reynal in 2021
Born
Victoire H. Cogevina Reynal

Boston, United States
OccupationBusinesswoman
Websitewww.mercury13.com

Currently based in London, she is acknowledged as one of the Latin American women that are redefining the soccer industry globally.[8][9] She co-founded the first sport agency managed only by women[10] and is an activist for gender equality[11] with UN Women [12] and is part of the Member board of directors of Women in Sports Tech[13] –from where she boosts the career of students and young professionals in traditionally male controlled fields, like technology and sport.

Personal life edit

Victoire Cogevina Reynal was born in Boston,[7] United States and shortly afterwards her family moved to Argentina where she grew up going to the general grandstand of the Avellaneda stadium to support her soccer team: Racing Club.[14] She is the daughter of Greek Ambassador Alexis Cogevinas and Argentinian FIFA agent Shalimar Reynal. During her childhood and adolescence, she lived in Boston, New York, London, Paris and Buenos Aires. Her grandfather is William Reynal, founder of Austral Lineas Aereas, Sol Jet and the first ski resorts of Argentina: Catedral and Chapelco.[15] In May 2023, she married professional poker player Philippe Souki, with whom she has a daughter.[16]

Career edit

In January 2015, Victoire founded SR ALL Stars, a US-based football agency representing elite LATAM professional players into the MLS[17] and one of the few sport agencies led only by women.[18] In addition to planning the corporate structure of the company,[19] she led the Image and Public Relations department. She worked with several teams and players of MLS, EPL and Serie A; she grew the players social media presence,[20] led the source sponsorship and endorsement deals and created corporate social responsibility (CSR) programs. In all those years, she opened up discussions on male chauvinism [21] and the lack of transparency in the soccer industry,[22] she became a spokesperson for those causes and she became a referent for women in the media of Latin America, Europe and the United States.

Three years later, she started her own project and pushed forward the development of Gloria Football [23][24] with the help of investors and her co-founder, Matias Castello,[25] a fellow Argentine soccer fan and previous Head of Partnership Product at Facebook.[26] In September 2022, the media company OneFootball announced the acquisition of the Gloria app and Cogevina's appointment as Vice President of Women's Football.[27]

In 2023, she announced the formation of the Mercury 13 trust; a multi-club ownership group focused on acquiring controlling stakes in professional women's football teams in Europe and Latin America, with a capital of more than $100 million.[28] The group made the acquisition of the Italian club Como Women from Italy's Serie A, one of the first women's clubs in Italy.[29][30]

Social commitment in gender gap edit

As a woman in sports tech, Cogevina is a passionate and outspoken advocate for gender equality in sports.[31] She currently serves as a United Nations Women speaker fighting for gender equality in soccer and advocating for female footballers[32] and professionals in the industry. She is also sharing her professional and advocacy experience with the Women in Sports Tech (WIST) team and fellows.[33] As an entrepreneur, her mission is to support the organization in two areas: boosting growth opportunities for other women throughout the sports tech and innovation landscape, informing about the wide array of career path possibilities in the industry for middle and high school young women.[34]

Cogevina joined Nadia Nadim and the city's mayor of Louisville, Kentucky, Greg Fischer,[35] with the aim of starting a campaign for raising money to support resettlement of Afghan women.[36]

Conferences edit

Cogevina has been a speaker at many conferences on sport (33), technology and gender (35).[citation needed]

  • SoccerEx (Miami, United States)
  • NHSA (Chicago, United States)
  • Leadership Women Football (Madrid, Spain)
  • Microsoft #CreateStartUp (London, England)
  • AdWeek Conference (New York, United States)
  • World Football Summit (Worldwide)
  • South by Southwest – SXSW (Austin, United States)
  • Superliga Argentina Fútbol (Buenos Aires, Argentina)
  • Athens Women's Football Summit (Athens, Greece)
  • World Football Summit 2023 (Sevilla, Spain)[37]
  • Web Summit 2023 (Lisbon, Portugal)[38]

References edit

  1. ^ Peuscovich, Stephanie (December 13, 2019). "Victoire Cogevina Reynal: la mujer que creó una aplicación para democratizar el fútbol". Marie Claire (in Spanish). Retrieved May 19, 2021.
  2. ^ "Women's Multiclub Football Pioneer in Talks Over First Deal". Bloomberg.com. August 24, 2023. Retrieved November 24, 2023.
  3. ^ "Consortium plans Lewes takeover and $100m investment in women's football". The Guardian. August 24, 2023. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved November 24, 2023.
  4. ^ "OneFootball acquires startup Gloria and appoints founder, Victoire Cogevina as VP of Women's Football".
  5. ^ "La emprendedora que decidirá quiénes serán los próximos 'Ronaldos' y 'Messi' – La Nación" (in Spanish). March 14, 2019. Retrieved May 19, 2021.
  6. ^ "OneFootball Buys Startup to Target Women as Fans Flock to Game". Bloomberg. September 29, 2022.
  7. ^ a b "How sports-tech entrepreneur Victoire Cogevina is revolutionizing the world of soccer". LatinasinBusiness.us. February 9, 2021. Retrieved November 28, 2021.
  8. ^ Lugones, Paula (May 1, 2021). "Tiene sangre argentina y armó la comunidad de fútbol online más grande del mundo". www.clarin.com (in Spanish). Retrieved May 19, 2021.
  9. ^ de 2019, 23 de Marzo (March 23, 2019). "Victoire Cogevina, la mujer que le va a cambiar la cara al fútbol". infobae (in European Spanish). Retrieved May 19, 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  10. ^ Kexel, María (September 27, 2017). "Las Reynal, dos argentinas que mueven la pelota en un mundo machista". www.clarin.com (in Spanish). Retrieved May 19, 2021.
  11. ^ "¡El deporte al rescate! Victoire Cogevina y la ONU entran en las favelas". tudn.mx. Retrieved November 28, 2021.
  12. ^ Univision. "Gracias al deporte | Victoire Cogevina y la ONU ayudan a las mujeres en Brasil". Univision (in Spanish). Retrieved May 19, 2021.
  13. ^ "ABOUT US". Women in Sports Tech. Retrieved May 19, 2021.
  14. ^ "Gloria: la app que busca ayudar a que los jugadores se den a conocer - Ovación - 12/01/2020 - EL PAÍS Uruguay". ovaciondigital.com.uy. January 11, 2020. Retrieved November 28, 2021.
  15. ^ "La sorprendente vida de Billy Reynal, el hombre que revolucionó la aviación comercial en la Argentina". Infobae. May 16, 2020. Retrieved November 28, 2021.
  16. ^ "De sangre argentina. Victoire Cogevina Reynal, una de las mujeres con más poder en el mundo del fútbol, se casó en Londres". La Nación (in Spanish). June 12, 2023.
  17. ^ "Madre e hija, y también representantes exitosas en el fútbol: de Estados Unidos desembarcan en la Argentina". LA NACION. October 26, 2017. Retrieved November 28, 2021.
  18. ^ "Shalimar y Victoire Reynal: las otras damas del fútbol | Vanity Fair España". revistavanityfair.es. January 2018. Retrieved November 28, 2021.
  19. ^ "Son madre e hija y le dan encanto femenino al soccer". Perfil. July 31, 2017. Retrieved November 28, 2021.
  20. ^ "Agencia de representación de jugadores se instala en Paraguay". infonegocios.com.py. Retrieved November 28, 2021.
  21. ^ "¡Miren a las chicas!". ole.com.ar. September 28, 2017. Retrieved November 28, 2021.
  22. ^ "La argentina que se le anima a la corrupción en el fútbol con una novedosa aplicación". Perfil. March 8, 2019. Retrieved November 28, 2021.
  23. ^ "Nueva app para la Superliga". ole.com.ar. December 4, 2019. Retrieved November 28, 2021.
  24. ^ "Gloria, la app que revolucionará el mundo del 'scouting'". Marca.com. January 24, 2020. Retrieved November 28, 2021.
  25. ^ "Innovación en la Superliga: cómo es la aplicación en la cual los clubes buscarán refuerzos sin recurrir a representantes". LA NACION. December 2019. Retrieved November 28, 2021.
  26. ^ "www.linkedin.com/in/matiasc/?locale=en_US". linkedin.com. Retrieved November 28, 2021.[self-published]
  27. ^ "OneFootball hires tech entrepreneur Cogevina as VP of women's football". September 29, 2022.
  28. ^ Nair, Rohith (August 24, 2023). "Mercury 13 group to invest $100 million in buying women's clubs". Reuters.
  29. ^ "Paving the way for female football professionalisation: Mercury/13 and the Como Women case". World Football Summit. March 5, 2024.
  30. ^ Castro, Juan (March 9, 2024). "El Como femenino da un paso histórico tras ser adquirido por el grupo inversor Mercury/13". Marca (in Spanish).
  31. ^ "La argentina que busca revolucionar el fútbol desde Silicon Valley". AS Argentina (in Spanish). November 16, 2018. Retrieved May 19, 2021.
  32. ^ TIM, Televisa. "¡El deporte al rescate! Victoire Cogevina y la ONU entran en las favelas". Video Televisa | Sitio Oficial (in Mexican Spanish). Retrieved May 19, 2021.
  33. ^ "Victoire Cogevina Reynal". online.sxsw.com. Retrieved May 19, 2021.
  34. ^ "Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian's latest bet: A soccer scouting app". news.yahoo.com. December 2, 2019. Retrieved May 19, 2021.
  35. ^ "Mayor announces fundraising effort to support humanitarian relief for women in Afghanistan". LouisvilleKY.gov. Retrieved November 28, 2021.
  36. ^ "Women urged to erase records they played soccer for Afghanistan". Los Angeles Times. August 24, 2021. Retrieved November 28, 2021.
  37. ^ Mercury 13: A New Era for Women's Football Ownership, retrieved November 24, 2023
  38. ^ https://websummit.com/schedule/ws23/timeslot/the-time-is-now-mercury-13-s-100m-plans-to-accelerate-the-future-of-women-s-football
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