Meet the Brazilian who became a billionaire by creating Kalshi, a rival to Polymarket

Meet the Brazilian Who Became a Billionaire by Creating Kalshi, Polymarket’s Rival

Brazilian Luana Lopes Lara, 29, has become the world’s youngest self-made female billionaire. The rise of the Kalshi co-founder—whose company operates as a prediction market and is now valued at $11 billion—has attracted global attention and was highlighted in reports by major international publications.

A Computer Science graduate from MIT, Luana had an unusual path before entering the financial world. She studied ballet at the Bolshoi Theater School in Joinville, SC, where she endured grueling routines, with intense training and simultaneous academic competitions, earning gold and bronze medals in science olympiads.

After a brief career as a professional ballerina in Austria, she decided to move into technology and relocated to the United States.

In 2018, she and Lebanese-born Tarek Mansour—also an MIT alumnus—founded Kalshi. The platform allows trading of contracts on future events, such as election outcomes and sports games, with federal authorization to operate in all 50 US states, even where online betting is prohibited.

The company sets itself apart by claiming to offer “price discovery and risk management tools," rather than traditional betting.

However, the process to make this possible was not simple. The founders faced years of regulatory battles before obtaining approval from the CFTC in 2020, which classified Kalshi as an event contracts market.

“We were diligent and worked with all the CFTC’s requirements. We didn’t give up until we crossed the finish line,” Luana told Bloomberg in 2022—a statement highlighting the resilience needed to build the business.

After winning legal disputes, including a lawsuit against the CFTC itself in 2023, Kalshi saw its volume explode, surpassing $1 billion per week. The new funding round of $1 billion, led by major venture capital funds, raised the company’s valuation to $11 billion—and Luana’s net worth to $1.3 billion.

Today, while competing with Polymarket and facing fresh pressure from state regulators, Kalshi continues to expand and integrate with major platforms like Robinhood, Webull, Google Finance, and even sports leagues, securing the young Brazilian’s place at the center of the global prediction market.