The prediction market Kalshi has reached a $11 billion valuation following its latest funding round, where, according to an insider, the company ended up raising $1 billion.
The insider has revealed that the ones who organised the latest round were two of Kalshi’s original investors, Sequoia and CapitalG.
The founders of Kalshi are Tarek Mansour and Luana Lopes Lara, former hedge fund traders.
Some of those who had previously invested also participated – Andreessen Horowitz, Paradigm, Anthos Capital, and Neo.
According to TechCrunch, no other previous investors took part in the latest funding round.
The previous round, which was two months ago, managed to raise over $300 million; at the time, Kalshi’s valuation was around $5 billion.
In the span of weeks, Kalshi’s valuation has more than doubled.
Meanwhile, the prediction market’s worth has increased over fivefold since June.
A report by Pitchbook suggests that Kalshi will soon have its 10th capital raise.
The New York Times has reported that Kalshi’s annual trading volume has surpassed $50 billion, which is ahead of the $300 million in volume the prediction market reported last year.
Advertising on the Subway
Over 140 countries have access to Kalshi, which enables them to place bets on a wide range of events, from presidential elections to sports events, as well as the recent Mayoral Election held in New York.
Kalshi ran a marketing campaign in New York aimed at drawing attention to the mayoral election.
During this campaign, Kalshi advertised using live screens on subway cars, which broadcast changes in odds for the two Mayoral Candidates, Mamdani and Cuomo, in almost Real-Time.
This year, Kalshi, as well as other prediction markets, have been constantly under the spotlight of mainstream media.
Due to the gray area they fall into, prediction markets have always been surrounded by controversy and legal issues.
Catching up to the Competition
The prediction markets Kalshi and Polymarket let people bet on the presidential election as it was happening, which greatly increased people’s perception of them.
Bloomberg has reported that Polymarket could be preparing for another funding round in order to increase its valuation from $12 billion to as high as $15 billion.
Polymarket only recently reached an $8 billion valuation, after raising $1 billion during its last funding round.
Currently, DraftKings holds the highest valuation out of any prediction market at over $14 billion.