Kalshi, a U.S.-based federal regulated exchange dedicated to trading on event outcomes, announced on Wednesday it secured $30 million through its Series A funding round, which was led by Sequoia Sequoia Capital with participation from Charles Schwab, Chairman of Charles Schwab Corporation, Henry Kravis, Co-Chairman & Co-CEO of KKR, SV Angel and previous investors, including Neo and YC Continuity.
Founded in 2018 by Tarek Mansour and Luana Lopes Lara, Kalshi states it allows people to trade on event outcomes, from whether Brexit will happen this year to whether it will rain in NYC tomorrow.
“We are developing an asset class, “event contracts,” and a financial exchange for trading on the outcome of events. Kalshi’s vision is to allow people to capitalize on their opinions and to trade in the domain of everyday knowledge.”
Lara, Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer at Kalshi, further explained:
“Investing is about putting money behind an opinion of what will happen in the future. Yet, traditional assets like stocks don’t provide direct exposure to event outcomes. Kalshi solves this problem by allowing investors to strip away all the other noise that influences asset price and isolates trading on the event itself.”
Alfred Lin, Partner at Sequoia and Kalshi Board Member, commented on the investment:
“Kalshi is a category-defining company. Tarek, Luana and team have created an entirely new model for how we invest in and engage with what’s happening in the world. Kalshi’s debut comes at a time when retail investors are pushing for more access to financial markets and opportunities to participate.”
Kalshi added it will use the new funding to bring its exchange to market and enable the trading of a unique asset class: event contracts. Kalshi is currently operating a waitlist program for its exchange, which is set to officially launch to the public next month.