Kalshi is the first federally regulated exchange in the United States that allows users to trade on the outcomes of real-world events. Founded in 2018 by MIT alumni Tarek Mansour and Luana Lopes Lara, the company emerged from their frustration working at Citadel and Goldman Sachs, where structuring event-driven financial products was overly complex. Kalshi was built to simplify that process by letting individuals and institutions directly trade on whether specific events will happen.

The company participated in Y Combinator’s Winter 2019 batch and spent the following years securing regulatory clearance. In 2020, Kalshi became the first platform to receive Designated Contract Market (DCM) status from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), allowing it to legally offer event contracts in the U.S. It officially launched in July 2021 with markets spanning politics, economics, culture, climate, and sports.

Kalshi has raised more than $106 million from top investors including Sequoia Capital, Y Combinator, and Henry Kravis. In 2024, it secured an additional $50 million in debt financing to prepare for a surge in trading activity around the U.S. election cycle. Despite legal controversy surrounding political markets, Kalshi has continued to expand its offerings, introducing contracts tied to events like baseball games and government decisions.

The company is headquartered in SoHo, Manhattan, with a secondary office in San Francisco. Its team of 51–200 employees supports a growing user base trading millions of dollars across hundreds of markets. Kalshi’s long-term mission is to turn the public’s knowledge into actionable, liquid markets – ultimately using financial tools to better understand what the world believes will happen.