Kalshi Upcoming IPO: Prediction market giant weighs a public debut

Will the Yankees win the American League this year? What will the highest temperature be in New York City today? Will the U.S. confirm that aliens exist by a given date? These are all things you can put money behind on Kalshi, a prediction market where users can buy Yes or No positions on whether an outcome will happen, with prices varying based on market sentiment.⁶

Traders can also take positions on IPO outcomes for popular companies, like Anthropic and OpenAI, although no such market exists for a Kalshi IPO on the platform itself.⁶ Still, the company is thinking about an IPO, according to CEO Tarek Mansour, although he told CNBC in June that a 2026 debut would not happen.¹ And reporting from The Information indicated a public listing is unlikely before late 2027 or 2028.²

Kalshi was the first Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC)-regulated exchange dedicated to event contract trading, operating as a Designated Contract Market (DCM) in the United States.⁷ The company is moving from being just an events contracts platform into more of a derivatives exchange, after announcing the launch of perpetual futures (perps) contracts in May 2026, starting with crypto perps.⁸ In September, Kalshi launched gold and silver perpetual futures.⁹

Kalshi generates revenue through trading fees on contracts¹⁰ and operates its own CFTC-approved clearinghouse, Kalshi Klear LLC, which launched in March 2026.¹¹

The company has experienced significant growth. Kalshi's annualized trading volume climbed over 32x from $5.5 billion in April 2025 to $178 billion in April 2026.³ Institutional trading activity also rose 800% in the six months prior to a May 2026 announcement of Kalshi's Series F, having raised $1 billion at a $22 billion valuation.³ That's double the valuation from Kalshi's Series E a few months earlier, in November 2025.¹² Moreover, the company has reportedly surpassed $2 billion in revenue, around three times as much as it was generating in November 2025.²

While Kalshi has grown quickly and has potential opportunities to expand, it also could face significant challenges. The prediction market sector has attracted substantial interest, such as with rival Polymarket reportedly raising $1 billion for a new funding round, led by Donald Trump Jr.’s venture capital firm, that values the company at $21 billion.¹³ That’s up from a $15 billion round in April 2026, which included a $600 million investment from Intercontinental Exchange, the New York Stock Exchange's parent company.¹⁴

However, this competition could pose both an opportunity to grow the overall market and a risk of losing market share or increasing operational costs to stand out. Regulation could pose a significant challenge too, such as with the State of New York suing Kalshi in July 2026, alleging it operates an illegal gambling operation¹⁵ — a claim Kalshi has disputed, arguing states cannot shut down a federally licensed exchange.¹⁶ CNBC also reported that Kalshi will need to address concerns about insider trading on the platform in order to increase Wall Street adoption.¹

For now, Kalshi remains a private company, and eligible accredited investors may be able to access Kalshi pre-IPO stock through a private marketplace such as Forge, subject to availability.

Kalshi: Company background

Kalshi, based in New York,¹⁷ was founded in 2018 by Tarek Mansour and Luana Lopes Lara, who met as researchers at the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) and who both have a background in finance.⁶,¹⁸,¹⁹ In 2020, the company became the first CFTC-regulated exchange dedicated to event contract trading.⁷

The company's business model centers on trading fees from event-contract volume. Kalshi offers markets across a broad range of categories including economics, politics, sports, weather and culture, allowing traders to speculate on or hedge against real-world outcomes.²⁰ In March 2026, the company expanded its infrastructure by launching Kalshi Klear LLC, its own CFTC-approved clearinghouse.²¹

Kalshi has attracted significant institutional backing. Investors include Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, Paradigm, Coatue, IVP, ARK Invest, Y Combinator and Charles Schwab, among many others.¹²

For more details on Kalshi's private market activity, visit the Kalshi stock page on Forge.

Kalshi IPO date and timeline

Kalshi has not announced a specific IPO date or filed registration documents with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). However, CEO Tarek Mansour confirmed in June 2026 that the company is considering an IPO but ruled out a 2026 public listing.²²

That followed a report by The Information from about a week earlier, which said that Kalshi was having informal talks with investment banks about an IPO, but that going public before late 2027 or 2028 would be unlikely. The Information also noted that Kalshi would need to hire a new CFO before going public, with its CFO Saurabh Tejwani having reportedly left the company.²

Several additional factors could influence the timing of a potential Kalshi IPO. The company's rapid valuation growth and revenue trajectory may support investor interest. However, regulatory challenges — including the July 2026 lawsuit filed by New York alleging the company operates an illegal gambling operation,¹⁵ among several other states involved in disputes with Kalshi²³— could complicate the path to a public listing. Yet in April 2026, the CFTC pursued litigation against the State of New York, similar to cases in a few other states, asserting its jurisdiction over event-contract markets, highlighting the ongoing regulatory uncertainty.²⁴

For updates on Kalshi's IPO status, visit the Kalshi IPO page on Forge.

The Kalshi prediction market growth story vs. regulatory roadblocks

Prediction markets allow participants to trade contracts based on the outcomes of future events. This model has attracted interest as a potential alternative to traditional financial instruments for hedging and speculation.²⁵ However, critics say that it is akin to gambling, particularly in areas like trading event contracts for sports.²⁶

While Kalshi became the first CFTC-regulated dedicated event contract exchange — differentiated from Polymarket, which did not initially pursue CFTC licensing and was temporarily shut down in the U.S.²⁷ — it still faces significant regulatory challenges. In addition to the New York lawsuit, for example, a federal judge ruled in August that Utah can enforce its anti-gambling laws regarding Kalshi,²³ and this continued in September with a federal appeals court ruling (although the case is ultimately still pending).²⁸ Kalshi also lost an appeal in August that enables Nevada to ban the platform and other prediction markets within the state.²⁹

The outcomes of these types of current and potential future legal proceedings, as well as potential regulatory changes at the federal level that could come as administrations change, could materially affect Kalshi's operating model and IPO prospects.

For now, though, Kalshi has been growing rapidly. Annualized trading volume increased more than 32x from $5.5 billion in April 2025 to $178 billion in April 2026.³ In June, The Information reported that Kalshi surpassed $2 billion in revenue, which was about three times its November 2025 level.² For July, its revenue then reportedly jumped to more than $4 billion on an annualized basis, although that was boosted by World Cup trading volume, so it remains to be seen if that pace will continue.³⁰

Kalshi has also been making more of an institutional push, with institutional trading activity rising 800% in six months preceding a May 2026 announcement of Kalshi's Series F.³

As part of reported informal talks about an IPO, Kalshi wanted investment banks to integrate with the platform to enable more institutional trading, as the company seeks to diversify beyond individual traders. To that point, Kalshi is also diversifying into areas like perpetual futures, potentially to diversify beyond retail traders and rely less on areas like sports predictions, which have faced legal challenges. Yet even its move into futures has been met with some resistance, such as with the Chicago Mercantile Exchange filing a lawsuit against the CFTC over its approval for platforms like Kalshi to list perpetual futures.²

Kalshi stock price history

Kalshi is not publicly traded and does not have a stock ticker on any public exchange. However, private market activity provides some insight into how shares have been valued. Kalshi's Forge Price is $970.53 at a $36.4 billion valuation, as of October 1, 2026. That's up over 2,000% from a year prior, when its Forge Price was $44.96.⁴

Forge Data as of 10/22/2026

Forge Price is a derived data point that reflects the up-to-date price performance of venture-backed, late-stage companies, and is calculated based on a proprietary model incorporating pricing inputs from primary funding round information, secondary market transactions and indications of interest (IOIs) on Forge.

Kalshi funding history and private market valuation

Kalshi has raised over $2.5 billion to date, and its valuation trajectory accelerated significantly in 2025 and 2026.¹²

Forge Data as of 10/22/2026

The company's first primary funding round came in 2019, when it received about $150,000 in seed funding at about a $750,000 valuation from Y Combinator. The following year, 2020, Kalshi raised nearly $6 million in additional seed round funding, valuing the company at $40.28 million, with investors such as ESAS Ventures, Global Founders Capital and Soma Capital participating.¹²

In February 2021, the Kalshi Series A raised $30 million at a $144.88 million valuation, in a round that included investors such as Charles Schwab, Henry Kravis and Human Capital. Later that year, in November 2021, Kalshi's Series B raised another $70 million from undisclosed investors at a $749.83 million valuation.¹²

Kalshi's next primary funding round didn't come until June 2025, when it raised $125 million for its Series C at a $2 billion valuation, with investors such as Bond, Paradigm and Sequoia Capital participating. A few months later, in October 2025, Kalshi raised another $300 million for its Series D, bringing its valuation to $5 billion. This round included investors such as Andreessen Horowitz, Coinbase Ventures, General Catalyst and Spark Capital.¹²

A little over a month later, in November 2025, Kalshi closed another funding round, its Series E, raising $1 billion at an $11 billion valuation, with investors such as Alpha Partners, Andreessen Horowitz, Ark Invest, IVP, and Paradigm participating. Most recently, in May 2026, Kalshi doubled its valuation to $22 billion, raising another $1 billion for its Series F. This round was led by Coatue, with Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, IVP, Paradigm, Morgan Stanley and ARK Invest also joining in.³

Kalshi is also reportedly seeking to complete another funding at a $40 billion valuation, which could close as soon as in third quarter of 2026.⁵ The round could raise $750 million+, with Kalshi reportedly in talks with existing investor Sequoia Capital and new investor Wellington Management to co-lead the round.³¹

How to invest in Kalshi before its IPO

Because Kalshi has not gone public, its shares are generally available only in the private market.

Accredited investors may be able to access shares of some pre-IPO companies like Kalshi through secondary market transactions, in which existing shareholders such as employees or early investors sell their holdings. An accredited investor is a person or entity that meets income or net-worth thresholds, or professional criteria, as set by the SEC.³²

Private market access can come with constraints. Share availability is not guaranteed, and companies often impose transfer restrictions, including a Right of First Refusal (ROFR) that lets the company or existing investors buy shares before an outside buyer can when an existing shareholder tries to sell. Private company shares are also typically illiquid, especially compared to public market securities, and valuations can be uncertain.

To learn more about pre-IPO opportunities, explore our buyer's guide to investing in private market shares or our comprehensive pre-IPO investing guide. Eligible investors can also create a free account on Forge to explore available private market investment opportunities.

Looking ahead

Although Kalshi has not announced a specific IPO date, the company's leadership has confirmed it is considering a public listing, albeit not in 2026.¹ Reporting from The Information suggests that an IPO would likely not come until at least late 2027 or 2028.²

That said, IPO timelines and plans can change quickly. Check back here or take a look at Forge's upcoming IPO calendar to stay in the loop about a potential Kalshi IPO and other pending public offerings.

To start exploring pre-IPO opportunities, accredited investors may create an account with Forge. After creating a free account, eligible investors may have the opportunity to buy and sell shares of private companies, including Kalshi, subject to availability.