Kalshi raises $1 billion at a $40 billion valuation: who invested, what the numbers say and what it means for Polymarket

Kalshi is now worth $40 billion. On 29 October 2026 the prediction market exchange announced a $1 billion Series G at a $40 billion post-money valuation, co-led by Wellington and Sequoia. Five months earlier, in May, a round of the same size led by Coatue valued the company at $22 billion. The new price is about 82% higher.

The round lands in the busiest week Kalshi has had: record October volume, the run-up to the 3 November midterms, and a fresh wave of legal action from states. Here is what was announced, what Kalshi says about its business, and what the valuation means for its rivals.

The round at a glance

Source: Kalshi's announcement of 29 October 2026; the May round as reported by Cointelegraph.

Ten co-investors joined the two leads. The list mixes long-only fund managers (Wellington, Baillie Gifford, Morgan Stanley Investment Management), venture firms that backed Kalshi earlier (Sequoia, Andreessen Horowitz, Coatue), Alphabet's growth fund CapitalG, the trading firm Hudson River Trading and the hedge fund Balyasny. That last pair matters: firms that trade for a living are betting on an exchange they could also trade on.

Cointelegraph noted that the deal was first reported in September, when Kalshi was said, citing Reuters, to be seeking $1 billion at the same valuation. Bloomberg described the raise as a pre-IPO funding push.

How fast the valuation has climbed

Kalshi was valued at about $2 billion in mid-2025 and about $5 billion a year ago, according to press reports. That makes the new round roughly a twentyfold increase in about eighteen months. Our page on who owns Kalshi covers the founders and earlier investors; our guide to Kalshi stock explains why there is still no way for the public to buy shares.

What Kalshi says about its business

Kalshi published a long list of figures with the round. They are the company's own numbers, not audited results, but they show where it thinks the growth is coming from.

The most striking line is the non-sports revenue. Kalshi says it now earns more than $1 billion a year outside sports. That is a direct answer to its critics, who argue that the company is a sportsbook in all but name: sports contracts are the target of most of the state lawsuits against it.

The other figures, as Kalshi states them:

• Crypto markets: about $140 billion of annualized trading volume.
• Politics: more than $8 billion annualized.
• Commodities: more than $100 million of annualized trading fees after just three months.
• International retail: approaching $100 million of annualized trading fees.
• Perpetual futures: $83 billion of trading volume and more than 500,000 traders since launch.
• Institutions: about 500 entities were active on Kalshi in September; excluding market makers, entities accounted for about 25% of exchange volume.

Cointelegraph added an outside figure: about $15.8 billion of trading volume over the previous 30 days, according to DefiLlama.

What a $40 billion price implies

A valuation is a bet on future earnings, so it helps to compare it with what Kalshi earns now. Cointelegraph reported that at the time of the May round Kalshi had an annualized revenue run rate of more than $1.5 billion. If total revenue is at least that today, the new round values the company at no more than about 27 times its annual revenue. Kalshi did not give a total revenue figure with the Series G, only the non-sports figure of more than $1 billion, so the true multiple is probably lower.

For comparison, listed exchange groups trade at far lower multiples, but they grow much more slowly. Investors are paying for growth: a doubling of the valuation in five months only makes sense if they expect volume, products and revenue to keep compounding.

Kalshi's month in one timeline

Our news on the NBA partnership and the CFTC's lawsuit against Utah has the details of the week.

What the money is for

Kalshi said it would use the capital "to grow the exchange, develop new assets, and expand access around the world." The plans it listed:

1. More prediction markets, and more institutional use of them.
2. New products: indices, single-stock perpetual futures and compute markets.
3. Sales and distribution aimed at institutions.
4. International expansion, with a focus on Latin America and Europe.

Put together, the pitch is that Kalshi wants to be a multi-asset exchange, closer to CME or ICE than to a betting app. The perpetual futures and a recently reported partnership with S&P Dow Jones Indices point the same way.

How it compares with Polymarket

Polymarket's last reported valuation was $21 billion, from a round led by 1789 Capital at the end of August, according to Bloomberg. Kalshi is now worth almost twice as much on paper. In mid-October Bloomberg reported that Polymarket was weighing either a traditional IPO or a native token, without having chosen. Our Polymarket valuation page has its full funding history.

The gap reflects volume. Kalshi says it handles more than 75% of prediction market trading. Independent trackers put its October share among US-regulated venues at about 83%, as we reported when Kalshi and Polymarket US set monthly records. Kalshi's October volume was about $65 billion.

Raising money into a legal storm

The round closed in a week of bad legal news, which makes the valuation more notable, not less.

• Utah filed criminal charges against Kalshi and its co-founders on Wednesday, 28 October, according to Reuters. The Hill reported that the filing lists 13 felony counts and one misdemeanor. That followed a civil suit from the state the week before.
• The CFTC sued Utah on Tuesday to stop it enforcing state gambling law against federally regulated exchanges (our report).
• Washington and several other states have restricted Kalshi's sports contracts under court orders, and federal appeals courts are split on whether sports event contracts count as swaps.
• On Wednesday Senators Elizabeth Warren and John Curtis wrote to Kalshi's chief executive, Tarek Mansour, and Polymarket's Shayne Coplan about insider trading in election markets (our report).

Investors are paying $40 billion for a company whose core product is under attack in a dozen states. They are betting that federal regulators, and eventually the Supreme Court, will side with the exchanges. The CFTC's proposal this month to define event contracts as swaps, which we covered in CFTC proposes event contracts as swaps, is the clearest sign yet that Washington is on Kalshi's side.

Is there a Kalshi IPO coming?

Not yet. Kalshi's announcement did not mention an IPO, and the company has not filed. Bloomberg's description of a pre-IPO round suggests investors expect one eventually. For now:

• There is no Kalshi stock to buy and no ticker.
• Offers of "pre-IPO Kalshi shares" outside regulated platforms are almost always scams or funds with heavy fees.
• The most direct listed exposure to the sector is through companies with stakes or partnerships, such as ICE (Polymarket's largest outside shareholder) or Robinhood (Robinhood prediction markets).

What it means for traders

For people who use Kalshi, the round changes little day to day. A few things to watch:

• More markets. New money and new asset classes mean more listings, including the stock-index and compute markets Kalshi named.
• Liquidity. Trading firms such as Hudson River Trading now own a piece of the exchange; more professional market making usually means tighter spreads. Our study of bid-ask spreads on Kalshi and Polymarket shows what trading costs today.
• Legal risk by state. Funding does not change state law. Whether you can trade sports contracts still depends on where you live: is Kalshi legal in your state.

Frequently asked questions

How much is Kalshi worth?
$40 billion after its Series G, announced on 29 October 2026. That is a private valuation set by the round, not a market price.

Who owns Kalshi?
Its co-founders, Tarek Mansour and Luana Lopes Lara, its employees and venture and institutional investors, now including Wellington, Sequoia, Andreessen Horowitz, Coatue and the other firms in the round. See who owns Kalshi.

Is Kalshi publicly traded?
No. There is no ticker and no IPO filing.

Is Kalshi bigger than Polymarket?
By valuation and by volume, yes. Kalshi is valued at $40 billion against Polymarket's last reported $21 billion, and Kalshi says it handles more than 75% of prediction market volume.

Key points

• Kalshi raised $1 billion in a Series G at a $40 billion post-money valuation, announced on 29 October 2026.
• Wellington and Sequoia co-led, with ten co-investors including Baillie Gifford, Andreessen Horowitz, Coatue, CapitalG and Hudson River Trading.
• The valuation is about 82% higher than May's $22 billion.
• Kalshi says it has more than $1 billion of non-sports annualized revenue, $1 trillion of annualized volume and 30 million accounts.
• The money is for new products, institutions and expansion in Latin America and Europe.
• The round comes as Utah files criminal charges and senators question election-market safeguards.

Related reading

• Who owns Kalshi?
• Kalshi stock: can you buy it?
• Polymarket valuation
• How does Kalshi make money?
• Kalshi vs Polymarket

This article reports company announcements and press coverage; it is not investment advice. Private-company valuations are set in funding rounds and can change sharply.