E1 Electric Powerboat Racing is seeking new investors to accelerate the growth of its electric powerboat championship, a discipline that has attracted celebrities, cities and major partners in a short period of time, but still needs to break through to a wider audience. The competition, launched by Alejandro Agag and Rodi Basso, wants to finance new boats, expand its team roster and strengthen an international calendar aimed at consolidating the world’s first electric powerboat championship.
The project captures the two sides of many emerging disciplines. E1 has distinctive technology, a sustainability narrative, attractive venues and team owners with major media reach, but it is still fighting to turn early attention into audiences, recurring revenue, solid sponsorship and genuine sporting follow-up. Its challenge is no longer to prove that it can exist, but to build a recognisable competition beyond the impact of its famous names.
PIF supports the project as E1 seeks new capital
Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund -PIF- is one of the championship’s major structural backers. Its presence forms part of Electric 360, the partnership announced in 2024 to support the growth of three electric racing platforms: Formula E, Extreme E and E1. For the electric powerboat category, that backing has provided institutional and financial strength, while also placing the competition within a wider strategy linked to electric mobility, innovation and global sport.
The search for new capital, however, shows that E1 is now entering a different phase. Reuters reported that the championship is working with Rothschild & Co. to raise around €20 million, with the aim of financing a second fleet of boats, easing logistical expansion and increasing its presence in markets such as Asia and America. The roadmap includes growing from nine to 12 teams, moving towards 15 races and reaching a valuation of €500 million by 2030.
Celebrities, teams and the value of attention
The other major lever for the championship has been the arrival of figures from sport, music and entertainment as team owners or co-owners. Tom Brady, Rafael Nadal, LeBron James, Will Smith, Marc Anthony, Steve Aoki, Virat Kohli, Didier Drogba and Marcelo Claure are part of an ecosystem that has allowed E1 to gain international visibility from its first seasons. In a new discipline, that attention works as an entry point for venues, sponsors and audiences that might not arrive through sporting appeal alone.
The addition of Thibaut Courtois as co-owner of Team Sierra reinforces that line and shows how E1 is also trying to connect with the language of new sports investors. The Real Madrid and Belgium goalkeeper joined the project alongside Sierra Racing Club, in a move linked to NXTPLAY Capital, the sports investment platform he co-founded. The move fits a broader trend: turning teams in new disciplines into assets with their own identity, commercial potential and international runway.
The challenge of turning a showcase into a stable discipline
The visual appeal does not remove the difficulty of creating a championship from scratch. Agag has acknowledged that one of the biggest challenges for any new competition is breaking through the media barrier: securing broadcasts, reaching large audiences and building revenue without initially relying on audiovisual rights. The experience of other electric projects shows that sustainability and innovation are not enough on their own if they do not become sporting viewing habits.
E1 is trying to solve that equation with a model based on coastal venues, hospitality, local sponsors, tourism and famous team owners. Unlike other formats that looked to remote locations, the championship is betting on cities and destinations interested in associating themselves with technology, sustainability and international promotion. That approach allows each event to become a city platform too, although the next step remains expanding the fan community and turning each race into a recognisable date on the sporting calendar.
The 2026 season is planned with eight races across four continents, with stops in Jeddah, Lake Como, Dubrovnik, Monaco, Lagos, Miami and Bahamas, plus one venue still to be confirmed. The calendar shows that E1 has already brought together symbolic capital, partners, boats, famous team owners and international destinations; it is now seeking the financial and sporting capital needed for its electric boats to move from a striking promise to a discipline with audience, continuity and revenue of its own.
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