Kalshi Just Won Another $1B Bet

Imagine riding a taxi in New York City during the recent mayoral election. Suddenly, screens on the streets show live bets on who might win the election. People can bet on this through Kalshi’s app, a widely popular prediction platform based in New York. 

Now, this platform, launched for public trading as recently as July 2021, has raised an additional $1 billion from at least two venture capital firms. This pushes its valuation to $11 billion—a big achievement for a start-up. The deal, revealed on Thursday by sources close to the matter, marks one of the quickest valuation doublings in recent startup history, coming barely two months after the company’s last cash infusion that pushed its valuation to $5 billion. The latest investment round was also led by Sequoia and CapitalG, the same investors who anchored Kalshi’s previous raise. 

Racing Against Polymarket

The startup now operates across more than 140 countries, letting users trade on outcomes ranging from magazine cover decisions to presidential elections. Trading volume exploded from roughly $300 million last year to $50 billion annualized by mid-October 2025.

Co-founders Tarek Mansour and Luana Lopes Lara, who met as MIT undergraduates, built the platform after working as hedge fund traders. Their main competitor, Polymarket, reportedly seeks funding at valuations between $12 billion and $15 billion.

Despite winning a lawsuit against the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission that opened American markets, Kalshi faces ongoing state-level challenges. Massachusetts regulators are suing the platform, calling its sports outcome contracts unlicensed illegal gambling that is against local rules. 

But these lawsuits are not stopping it from growing. Its fresh alliances include collaboration with Barchart for pro-grade real-time data feeds, links with StockX to let its users wager on sneaker drops and collectible crazes, and shifting USDC handling to Coinbase’s institutional custody vault for better security.