$300m investment round values Kalshi at $5bn
Prediction markets operator Kalshi has raised $300m in its latest funding round and has announced plans to open the product to users from more than 140 countries.
Key points:
- The new investment raises the value of the company from around $2bn to $5bn
- Previously only available in the US, Kalshi will soon be accessible to users from more than 140 countries
- DraftKings' share price fell over 5% on the day of this announcement
Tarek Mansour, Kalshi CEO, has confirmed in a LinkedIn post the rumoured $300m investment from the company's latest funding round.
The new funds raise the prediction market giant's valuation from around $2bn to $5bn – this week a $2bn investment from the Intercontinental Exchange in Polymarket raised Kalshi's prediction market rival's valuation to circa $9bn.
In Mansour's post, he also confirmed that Kalshi, previously only available to users in the US, would soon be accessible by users from more than 140 countries.
Seemingly in response to the news, sports betting operator DraftKings' share price fell by more than 5%.
Sequoia Capital is one of the named investors in this new funding round, having been involved with company's financing since its inception back in 2020 – a new investor, Andreessen Horowitz, is noted as being a key part of this fresh raise.
Mansour confirmed that Paradigm, Coinbase, General Catalyst, CapitalG and Spark were also among the 137 ventures forming this funding round.
The now surpassed $2bn valuation came from the company's last significant funding round in June, at which point it raised $185m.
The friction caused by prediction markets in the sports betting arena was felt a few days ago when Kalshi introduced parlay cards for the first time – a combined $7bn was lopped off FanDuel parent-company Flutter and DraftKings' combined market cap.
Despite the company's growing success and popularity with its users, its legal troubles are far from concluded.
When the company first ventured into sports contracts, it was served with cease and desists in many of the 50 states it was operational in.
Good to know: Kalshi's rise in popularity has been steep this year since it began offering sports contracts – last month, the company was the subject of a South Park episode, a still from which is Tarek Mansour's LinkedIn cover photo
It has taken an aggressive legal stance where this course of action has been pursued, seeking preliminary court injunctions against state's individual gambling regulators.
After tentative legal victories in New Jersey and Nevada, its injunction request was knocked back by Judge Abelson in Maryland and Kalshi has this week sued Ohio's regulator.
Its victories however are not definitive and are still being litigated – on the same day this new raise was announced the Nevada Gaming Control Board submitted a motion asking Kalshi to provide documents related to its communications with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
So while the platform opens its doors to global users, its long-term viability in its home country is still yet to be decided.
https://www.gamblinginsider.com/news/31558/300m-investment-round-values-kalshi-at-5bn