Who founded Kalshi? Kalshi was started by two MIT graduates, Tarek Mansour and Luana Lopes Lara, who still run it as chief executive and chief operating officer. They spent years winning federal approval for a regulated event-contracts exchange, then a court fight to list election markets, before Kalshi grew into one of the two biggest prediction markets. This page covers the founders and the company’s key milestones, from regulatory records and reputable reporting, checked October 2026.
The founders
- Tarek Mansour (CEO) studied at MIT and worked in finance, with stints at Goldman Sachs and Citadel, before co-founding Kalshi.
- Luana Lopes Lara (COO), from Brazil, trained as a professional ballerina before studying at MIT, and interned at Bridgewater and Citadel. After Kalshi’s December 2025 funding round, Forbes named her the world’s youngest self-made woman billionaire, at 29.
Reporting at the time put each founder’s stake at about 12% of the company.
Key milestones
| When | Milestone |
|---|---|
| 2018 | Kalshi founded in New York |
| November 2020 | CFTC designates KalshiEX as a contract market (exchange) |
| September 2024 | A federal court rules against the CFTC’s attempt to block Kalshi’s congressional control contracts; the CFTC later drops its appeal |
| January 2025 | Kalshi begins listing sports contracts |
| 2025–2026 | Funding rounds at valuations rising from $2 billion to $22 billion |
Full funding history: Kalshi valuation and IPO.
Who owns Kalshi?
Kalshi is a private company. Its founders hold significant stakes, alongside venture and growth investors including Paradigm, Sequoia and Coatue, which have led or joined its funding rounds. Its shares aren’t publicly traded.
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