Skills-based sponsorship: first class of the "Palatine Women Project"

Last April, Banque Palatine, a Groupe BPCE subsidiary, decided to support four female athletes in the pursuit of their entrepreneurial projects with the launch of the ‘Palatine Women Project program.’ An initiative crowned with success! 
 
This skill-based sponsorship scheme, co-directed by Séverine Desbouys – a former professional cycling champion turned entrepreneur and investor – has been designed to meet the expectations and needs of each of the athletes in this first class of the program. By providing them with a network of coaches, mentors and experts, Banque Palatine supported these athletes and para-athletes for a period of nine months whether they were enrolled in retraining schemes or not, but on the condition they were pursuing their own entrepreneurial ventures. 
 
The program, which is now coming to an end, has proved to be a success. Alexia Barrier, the skipper from Nice who recently won the Rolex Middle Sea Race on her multihull Mod70 Mana, is one of the four sportswomen in the first class of the Palatine Women Project. She has set herself a new challenge: to be on the starting line of the Jules Verne Trophy in 2024 with a 100% international female crew and to break the existing record! 
 
Her classmate, the 400-meter hurdles specialist Coralie Gassama, has designed and marketed Key One, sets of protective shells that clip onto the spiked shoes worn by athletes. The experts of the Palatine Women Project are currently helping her to raise funds with a view to releasing models specifically designed for the high jump, triple jump, and shot put. 
 
In Polynesia, on the other side of the world, the taekwondo champion Anne-Caroline Graffe is currently acquiring three hectares of land in order to set up ‘Puna Ora,’ an educational and sports farm dedicated to nutritional education, agriculture, nature preservation, and the expression of Polynesian culture.  
 
The fourth athlete in the class, Alexia Dubié, is receiving support for her project to open a digital boutique. 
 
The Palatine Women Project will continue until at least 2025, with between eight and ten athletes per class.