Kalshi raises $1B Series E at an $11B valuation, solidifying its lead as the prediction market giant

Kalshi has stepped into rare territory. The prediction market startup just secured a $1 billion Series E round at an $11 billion valuation, a leap that signals how quickly this category is maturing, the company announced Tuesday. Paradigm led the round, joined by Sequoia, Andreessen Horowitz, Meritech Capital, IVP, ARK Invest, Anthos Capital, CapitalG, and Y Combinator—some of the strongest names in tech and finance.

The raise comes only five months after Kalshi raised $185 million at a $2 billion valuation. That surge in valuation shows how swiftly the company has moved from a niche idea to a platform reshaping how people interact with information. Founded in 2018, Kalshi built a market where anyone can trade on real-world events. It positioned prediction markets as a financial asset category and changed how people respond to news. Instead of sitting on the sidelines, users are taking positions on outcomes that matter to them.

“Kalshi is replacing debate, subjectivity, and talk with markets, accuracy, and truth,” CEO Tarek Mansour said. “We have created a new way of consuming and engaging with information. It’s hard to have an opinion about the future today without thinking about Kalshi.”

From Niche to $11B Titan: Kalshi Raises $1B to Scale Prediction Markets Nationwide

The company’s recent growth supports that. Weekly trading volumes now pass $1 billion, up more than 1,000% from 2024. Millions of people log in each week to trade across more than 3,500 markets. Reporters, politicians, analysts, and everyday traders use Kalshi as a pulse check on upcoming outcomes. The platform even projected the NYC mayoral election eight minutes after polls closed—long before traditional outlets made their calls.

The new capital gives Kalshi room to push deeper into mainstream adoption. The team plans to reach the following hundred million users, integrate with more brokerages, expand news partnerships, and broaden the types of markets it offers.

For Paradigm, the surge in demand is no surprise. “Kalshi’s exponential growth shows the scale of latent demand for prediction markets as a new asset class—from institutions to everyday people,” said Paradigm co-founder Matt Huang. “People come for one type of market and stay for the breadth. We see this as an uncapped cultural and economic phenomenon, similar to how we felt about crypto a decade ago.”

Founded in 2018 by MIT classmates Tarek Mansour and Luana Lopes Lara, Kalshi has faced its share of legal fights. Last year, the company took the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to court and won, securing the ability to offer contracts tied to the presidential election.

Kalshi’s rise hasn’t been without friction. After a legal fight with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission last year, the company won the right to offer contracts tied to the presidential election. This outcome reshaped the regulatory conversation around prediction markets.

Today, Kalshi calls itself the largest prediction market platform, offering users a stream of real-time probabilities tied to real-world events. Its pitch is simple: better information leads to better decisions. Millions of users have bought into that idea.

The latest round, one of the biggest private financings of the year, plants a flag for a category that’s long operated on the fringes. Kalshi isn’t waiting for the industry to catch up. It’s pushing prediction markets into the financial mainstream—and investors are betting heavily that the shift is already underway.