Few startups ring the register twice in five months at a higher valuation. Kalshi did it in less than that.
The New York event-contracts exchange closed a $1B Series G at a $40B post-money valuation on October 29. Wellington Management and Sequoia Capital co-led the round, with Baillie Gifford, Andreessen Horowitz, Coatue, CapitalG, Layer Global, Morgan Stanley Investment Management, Hudson River Trading, Balyasny Asset Management and Stripes all joining the ticket.
The jump is steep. Kalshi was valued at $22B in May and only $11B last December, meaning the latest mark roughly quadruples what investors agreed to a year ago.
Volume is not revenue, and Kalshi knows it
The company says annualized trading volume across prediction markets, crypto, commodities and perpetual futures has crossed $1T. More than 30M accounts sit on the platform, and the company claims more than three quarters of all prediction market activity.
The number that matters more is revenue. Kalshi says non-sports business now generates more than $1B in annualized revenue, commodity trading fees passed $100M annualized in three months, and crypto volume reached an annualized $140B.
Perpetual futures change the competitive set
After Commodity Futures Trading Commission approval, Kalshi launched perpetual futures and has logged $83B in volume with more than 500,000 traders.
Those contracts carry no expiry and allow meaningful leverage, which pushes Kalshi into direct competition with CME Group and Intercontinental Exchange rather than the sportsbooks it started out flanking. Around 500 institutional entities traded on the platform in September, accounting for roughly a quarter of volume before market makers are counted.
Founded in 2018 by MIT graduates Tarek Mansour and Luana Lopes Lara, Kalshi is no longer selling novelty bets on elections and weather. It is selling itself as an exchange.
