Tarek Mansour, CEO of Kalshi, has confirmed in a LinkedIn post the long-rumored $300 million investment secured in the company’s latest funding round, bringing the company’s valuation to $5 billion, as stated last month.
Kalshi’s CEO Announces the Company Hit Its Previously-Stated Validation
This new capital injection boosts the valuation of the prediction market leader from approximately $2 billion to the promised validation. It should also be noted that earlier this week, a $2 billion investment from Intercontinental Exchange into Polymarket, Kalshi’s chief competitor, pushed its valuation to around $9 billion.
In his post, Mansour also revealed that Kalshi, previously limited to US users, will soon be available in over 140 countries worldwide. Sequoia Capital, an early backer of Kalshi since its founding in 2020, participated again in this round. Additionally, Andreessen Horowitz has joined as a major new investor. Mansour also confirmed that Paradigm, Coinbase, General Catalyst, CapitalG, and Spark were among the 137 ventures involved in the funding.
It should be noted that it was just last month when both Polymarket and Kalshi considered their valuations at $9 billion and $5 billion, respectively. Now, after Mansour’s recent announcement, both companies have reached their previously stated valuation goals.
Various Hurdles Still Remain in Kalshi’s Path to US Expansion
According to Kalshi, the platform’s international expansion will enable the creation of a “single, unified liquidity pool for prediction markets.” The company noted that prediction markets have always held global relevance, stating that events do not stop at national borders. Kalshi also emphasized that users across continents will be able to trade directly on the outcomes of major global events, including elections, central bank decisions, sports, and climate-related developments.
However, while the company is seeing fast development and growth, this has not come without its fair share of troubles. The impact of prediction markets on the sports betting industry became evident recently when Kalshi launched parlay cards for the first time, wiping a combined $7 billion from the market value of FanDuel’s parent company, Flutter, and DraftKings.
In addition to its market-shaking presence, Kalshi has also been embroiled in various legal troubles. The company received cease and desist orders in many of the 50 states where it was operating. In response, it adopted an aggressive legal approach, pursuing preliminary court injunctions against individual state gambling regulators. Most recently, Kalshi filed a lawsuit against Ohio’s regulator as it seeks both temporary and permanent injunctions to prevent the state from enforcing its cease-and-desist directive.
As all of these hurdles persist in Kalshi’s way of further expanding into various markets, the company’s long-term viability in its home country of the USA is still in question.