Brazilian Luana Lara earns title of world's youngest self-made billionaire.
Luana Lopes Lara, a 29-year-old from Santa Catarina, has earned the title of the world's youngest self-made billionaire. The co-founder of Kalshi achieved this position on Wednesday (4) after her company received investments of US$1 billion, raising the company's valuation to US$11 billion. The Brazilian holds a 12% stake in the prediction market platform.
According to Forbes estimates, Lara's net worth is estimated at US$1,3 billion, approximately R$7 billion. The businesswoman shares the same equity stake with her partner, Tarek Mansour, with whom she founded Kalshi in 2019.
What is Kalshi, the startup of a young Brazilian billionaire?
Founded in 2019, Kalshi operates as a platform where users trade binary contracts on future outcomes in various fields. The company's name originates from Arabic, Mansour's native language, and means "everything"—a reference to the wide range of topics covered on the platform.
The company allows bets on various future events, from the next Federal Reserve (Fed) chairman to the country that will win the 2026 World Cup. In current bets on the Fed, Kevin Hassett leads with 84% of the predictions, while Kevin Warsh has 11% of the odds.
In predictions for the World Cup, Spain emerges as the favorite with a 17% probability of winning, followed by France (15%), England (13%), and Brazil (11%). For next year's Brazilian presidential election, the bets show a technical tie: both President Lula and the governor of São Paulo, Tarcísio Freitas, appear with 43% each.
The business model is based on contracts with prices ranging from zero to US$1, the amount received by whoever correctly predicts the outcome. The amount wagered is determined by the probability of the predicted event occurring.
A graduate in computer science from MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), Lara worked at Bridgewater Associates and Citadel before launching her own venture. The Brazilian's career includes gold medals in the Brazilian Astronomy Olympiad and a bronze medal in the Santa Catarina Mathematics Olympiad.
In addition to her talent for exact sciences, Lara studied ballet at the Brazilian branch of the Bolshoi Theatre School during high school. Her artistic experience includes a stint as a professional ballerina in Austria, where she performed for four months in the ballet Swan Lake.
The company's regulation in the US occurred in November 2020, with the assistance of attorney Jeff Bandman, when the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) recognized Kalshi as a designated contracts market operation.
In 2024, the company won a legal victory against the CFTC, securing authorization to offer regulated election contracts. During the US elections of that year, the platform moved more than US$500 million in contracts related to the contest between President Trump and Kamala Harris.
Trading volume on the platform has grown by more than 1.000% compared to 2024. Currently, sports contracts represent 90% of this volume, with weekly trading exceeding US$1 billion.
The startup has the backing of major venture capital firms among its investors, including Paradigm, Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, and Capital G. In the forecasting market, Kalshi's main competitor is Polymarket.
A key differentiator for the company in the American market is its regulatory status. Kalshi is the first brokerage in its segment to obtain official regulation from the CFTC, the federal agency responsible for overseeing futures and commodities contracts in the United States.
