Karsi, a prediction market that allows people to bet on future events, raised a whopping $1 billion at a valuation of $11 billion, according to people familiar with the deal. The round comes less than two months after the seven-year-old startup announced $300 million in funding at a previous valuation of $5 billion.
The round is being led by returning investors Sequoia and Capital G, the person said. Kalsi’s other investors include Andreessen Horowitz, Paradigm, Ansos Capital and Neo.
Mr. Carsi and Mr. Sequoia declined to comment. CapitalG did not respond to a request for comment.
Calci’s main rival, Polymarket, was in talks last month to raise a new funding round at a valuation of $12 billion to $15 billion, just weeks after closing a $1 billion round at a pre-money valuation of $8 billion, Bloomberg reported.
Calci and Polymarket surged in popularity last year as both prediction markets allowed people to bet on the outcome of presidential elections. These betting sites became even more prominent after accurately predicting the outcome of the New York mayoral election earlier this month.
During the Mamdani-Cuomo race, Kalsi bought advertising space on New York subway cars and ran live screens showing each candidate’s latest odds of victory. This marketing campaign definitely increased the company’s brand awareness among New Yorkers.
At Calsi, people from more than 140 countries can bet on a variety of future events, from Time Magazine’s 2025 Person of the Year and the Rotten Tomatoes score of the movie Wicked to even more far-reaching outcomes, such as the winner of the next U.S. presidential election.
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In mid-October, the company’s annual trading volume reached $50 billion, an increase of more than 1,000 times from last year’s roughly $300 million in trading volume, The New York Times reported.
Karsi was co-founded by former hedge fund traders Tarek Mansour and Luana López Lara. The two met while studying computer science and mathematics as undergraduates at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
Prediction markets have historically been controversial and the subject of legal challenges because they operate in a gray area between financial products and traditional gambling.
Kalsi successfully sued the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) last year, securing the right for Americans to use its platform, but the company is currently engaged in legal disputes with numerous state regulators who claim its activities constitute illegal gambling.
The settlement with the CFTC prohibits Polymarket from providing services to U.S. residents starting in 2022. The company acquired a derivatives exchange and a clearinghouse in July. This move gave Polymarket the right to re-enter the US market. In September, the company’s CEO and founder, Shayne Coplan, told X that “Polymarket has been given the green light by the CFTC to operate in the United States.”
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