Luana Lopes Lara did not begin her journey in Silicon Valley or with a childhood spent tinkering with computers.
Instead, the 29-year-old co-founder of prediction market Kalshi, now crowned the world’s youngest self-made woman billionaire, spent her formative years in studios, navigating the rigour of classical ballet.
Today, she stands at the helm of one of the fastest-growing financial platforms in the United States, after Kalshi announced on Tuesday that it had raised a $1 billion funding round at an $11 billion valuation.
Forbes reports that the 29-year-old Kalshi cofounder has overtaken Scale AI’s Lucy Guo to become the youngest self-made woman billionaire — a title Guo had only recently claimed after surpassing Taylor Swift, long seen as the benchmark for young self-made female wealth.
The deal has propelled Lopes Lara and her co-founder, Tarek Mansour, into the ranks of paper billionaires, with each holding an estimated 20 to 25% of the company, according to The New York Times.
It marks a striking chapter for the Brazil-born founder, who, according to Forbes, once balanced dawn academic classes with gruelling afternoons of choreography at the Bolshoi Theater School before ultimately choosing technology over dance.
From ballet studios to MIT and Wall Street
Lopes Lara’s path shifted decisively when she moved to the United States to study computer science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Her internships at Bridgewater Associates and Citadel offered an early glimpse into the mechanics of global finance, laying the groundwork for what would become one of the most closely watched startups in the prediction market sector.
She and Mansour launched Kalshi in 2018 with a simple premise: to let users trade on real-world events, whether political outcomes, sports results or cultural moments.
The company’s rise has been striking.
Kalshi was valued at $2 billion in June, jumped to $5 billion in October and has now more than doubled that figure following its latest investment round.
Record trading activity fuels investor confidence
The past year has been transformative for Kalshi, driven largely by its push into complex sports bets known as parlays.
Analysts say a significant portion of the platform’s activity now comes from sports, reshaping a business originally centred on politics and cultural events.
The company oversaw $5.8 billion in trading volume in November, up 32% from October and marking its highest month on record, according to data from The Block.
Its breakneck growth has not gone unnoticed.
Matt Huang, co-founder of the venture firm Paradigm, described Kalshi as one of the fastest-growing companies he has encountered.
Mansour said the new funding will support the introduction of more products, expansion into international markets and deeper distribution partnerships with brokerages, enabling Kalshi’s contracts to trade with the ease of equities.
CNN partnership and growing industry rivalry with Polymarket
Kalshi also announced a partnership with CNN, which will integrate the platform’s prediction data into its coverage.
The network said its chief data analyst, Harry Enten, will use the market signals to inform and fact-check reporting, a rare collaboration between a major media outlet and a prediction platform.
But Kalshi’s surge comes amid intensifying competition.
Polymarket, its closest rival, recently secured approval to operate in the United States and has raised substantial capital of its own, backed in part by the owner of the New York Stock Exchange.
The momentum behind both firms has put pressure on traditional gambling giants such as DraftKings and FanDuel, which are now seeking entry into prediction markets as user interest shifts.
For Lopes Lara, the valuation milestone reflects not only the scale of Kalshi’s ambitions but the culmination of a long, unconventional journey.
Ballet may have taught her precision and discipline, but it is her grounding in mathematics and her leap into technology that now define her growing influence in global finance.
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