Kalshi Secures $185 Million Funding Round, Valued at $2 Billion as Prediction Markets Gain Momentum

New York – Kalshi, a U.S.-regulated prediction market platform, has successfully closed a $185 million Series C funding round, propelling its valuation to $2 billion. The investment was led by crypto-focused venture capital firm Paradigm, with significant participation from Sequoia, Multicoin, Neo, Bond Capital, and Citadel Securities CEO Peng Zhao. This substantial capital injection underscores growing investor confidence in the burgeoning prediction market sector.

Kalshi CEO Tarek Mansour announced the funding on X, stating, "People choose to work at Kalshi not because of the money we’ve raised, but because of our ambition: build the most important financial market on the planet." The company, founded in 2018 by Mansour and Luana Lopes Lara, allows users to trade on the outcomes of real-world events ranging from economic indicators and political elections to sports and weather.

Paradigm, known for its deep investments in the crypto and blockchain space, views prediction markets as a nascent asset class with trillion-dollar potential. Matt Huang, co-founder and managing partner at Paradigm, remarked, "Prediction markets remind me a lot of what crypto felt like a decade ago: a nascent asset class on a path to trillions." While Kalshi operates as a regulated financial exchange for event contracts, its integration of crypto deposits, including Bitcoin, Solana, and USDC, and its appeal to crypto-native users highlight a strategic bridge between traditional finance and the digital asset ecosystem. This positions Kalshi as a key player in the evolving landscape where off-chain events meet on-chain participation.

The new funds will primarily be allocated to scaling Kalshi’s technology team and expanding integrations with more brokerage platforms, building on existing partnerships with Robinhood Markets and Webull. This move aims to make event contracts more accessible to a broader audience. Kalshi's growth follows a significant regulatory victory in May 2025, when the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) dismissed an appeal that had challenged the platform's ability to offer political event contracts, further solidifying its regulated status in the U.S.

The funding round also comes amidst heightened competition in the prediction market space. Rival platform Polymarket is reportedly nearing a $200 million funding round at a valuation exceeding $1 billion, led by Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund. A key differentiator is Kalshi's federal regulation by the CFTC, allowing it to operate legally in the U.S., unlike Polymarket which restricts U.S. users. This regulatory clarity provides Kalshi a significant advantage in attracting institutional and retail investors within the American market.