Kalshi, the prediction markets platform that has become the dominant force in U.S. event contracts, is in informal talks with investment banks about a potential initial public offering, The Information reported Thursday, citing sources familiar with the company’s financials.
The disclosure caps a period of rapid transformation for the four-year-old company. Kalshi’s annualized revenue has crossed $2 billion — triple its November 2025 figure — after spikes in trading tied to the NBA playoffs and the FIFA World Cup drove volume to record levels.
In May, the platform recorded $16.81 billion in monthly trading volume, up from $14.81 billion in April.
The IPO conversations remain at an early stage, and no listing is expected before late 2027 or 2028. As part of the discussions, Kalshi is asking prospective bank advisers to integrate with its platform, a move designed to give institutional clients of those banks direct trading access.
The news lands weeks after Kalshi closed a $1 billion Series F round led by Coatue at a $22 billion valuation — double the company’s valuation from January. The round drew participation from Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, Paradigm, IVP, Morgan Stanley, and ARK Invest.
Kalshi’s monster numbers
Kalshi commands more than 90% of U.S. prediction market activity. Its annualized trading volume climbed from $52 billion to $178 billion over the past year, and institutional trading on the platform jumped 800% in the six months ended in early May.
Those numbers have drawn attention from Wall Street firms looking for new venues to deploy capital.
The company was founded in 2020 by Tarek Mansour and Luana Lage, graduates of the MIT and Y Combinator programs, to build a regulated exchange where users can trade on the outcomes of real-world events — from Federal Reserve decisions and economic indicators to sports results and political races.
For years, Kalshi waged a legal battle against the CFTC for the right to list political event contracts. It prevailed in late 2024 when a federal court ruled in the company’s favor, unlocking a market that now generates billions in annual trading volume.
Kalshi plans to deploy its latest capital toward institutional expansion, including block trading capabilities, new risk products for hedge funds, asset managers, and insurers, and upgrades to its core trading infrastructure.
IPO timing will depend in part on broader market conditions and the durability of Kalshi’s growth. The prediction market space has attracted a wave of competitors, including Polymarket, but Kalshi’s status as a CFTC-regulated exchange gives it advantages in institutional adoption that decentralized rivals cannot replicate.
Should Kalshi go public in 2027 or 2028 at a valuation near its last private round, it would rank among the largest U.S. fintech IPOs in recent years.
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